Terrorist taunts Australians over Bali

JAKARTA, June 15 (UPI) -- Terrorist Abu Bakar Bashir tauntingly told Australians their people died in the 2002 Bali blasts "because it was God's will."

Bashir was released on Wednesday after serving 26 months of a 30-month sentence for condoning the first Bali attack. Some 202 people were killed, including 88 Australians.

Bashir insisted that the terrorists were not behind the bombings, "not the killers, but only Allah's conduit" for the deaths, The Australian reported.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard, in a terse, four-paragraph letter to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, voiced "very deep personal concerns and the distress" felt by Australians over Bashir's release.

Bashir, speaking at an Islamic school in the central Java city of Solo, where at least two of the Bali bombers studied, warned Howard to "stay out of Indonesia's affairs."