Ali Fauzi headed to the prison island of Nusakambangan by boat about 5.30am Sydney time to oversee the religious rites on the bodies.



He sent a text message to relatives in Arabic saying: "They are with the Almighty." The bullets were removed from the bodies and autopsies performed before the bodies were cleaned and wrapped in traditional Muslim cloth in preparation for burial.



It is believed the bodies have been taken off the island to the airfield from where they will be transported to the family villages.



In a statement on behalf of the family of Mukhlas and Amrozi, elder brother Chozin said: "We hope the spirit of my brothers Amrozi and Ali Ghufron [Mukhlas] will be taken by green birds to paradise."

A spokesman for Indonesia's Attorney-General's Office, Jasman Pandjaitan, said: "At 12.15am, the convicts ... were executed by shooting and followed up with an autopsy."



"They have been stated as dead. At this moment the bodies are being washed by the family."



The men's bodies are expected to be flown by helicopter today from the prison island to their home towns. Amrozi and Mukhlas are from the small village Tenggulun in East Java. Imam Samudra comes from Serang in West Java. The bombers' funerals are expected to be held within hours of their bodies arriving home.

Victims' families A Sydney woman who lost two sisters and two cousins in the 2002 Bali bombings has tearfully told of her relief that the Islamic militants responsible are dead.

"We're very happy ... we've waited a very long time for this and this is our justice," Maria Kotronakis told CNN, struggling at times to speak. "Finally the moment has come ... we are over the moon." Georgia Lysaght, 27, of Wollongong, who lost her older brother Scott Lysaght said her family never felt vengeful because nothing would ever bring back Scott.

"The fact that it has happened doesn't bring Scott back. It doesn't change what's happened, it doesn't bring any sense of closure," she said. "It doesn't make me feel that justice has been served. The only just thing to do would to be able to see my brother again, and that is not going to happen."

The Federal Government has issued an updated travel warning for Bali, warning of reprisal attacks following the executions.



The warning says school graduates, in particular, should exercise "heightened caution" if they are planning late year schoolies' trips to the island.



Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith said yesterday the Government was receiving new "credible evidence" of the threat of terrorist attacks.



Mr Smith said the travel advice to Indonesia had not changed from the second highest level: "Reconsider your need to travel." The presence of police has been stepped up across Indonesia amid threats of attacks in Bali and in Jakarta shopping malls. Most terrorism analysts believe it's unlikely there will be a major attack but agree there is a risk of mob violence and clashes involving hardline supporters of the trio. The executions follow years of legal challenges to the death sentences, which were handed down in 2003.

Right up until their final days, the killers showed no remorse and used the media to claim to be warriors of Islam and predict a wave of attacks against Westerners following their deaths. Mukhlas was convicted of approving, inciting, financing and carrying out the bombings, while his younger brother Amrozi bought the van and a tonne of chemicals used in the explosion, and attended planning sessions for the attacks.

Samudra was the operational field commander for the bombings. In the lead-up to the executions, survivors of the attacks and family members of those lost had mixed feelings about the trio being sentenced to death. Some felt the bombers' deaths would bring closure for still-grieving relatives, while others felt it would elevate the three to martyrdom.

David "Spike" Stewart, whose son Anthony died in the nightclub attacks, said earlier this year he would have been happy to pull the trigger of one of the firing squad rifles. "I'd check the rifle to make sure I wasn't given the blank," he said.

Leanne Woodgate, from Port Melbourne, who was badly burnt with her sister in Paddy's Bar, said: "I'll believe it when it actually happens. I hope it's soon ... it will help because they ruined my life." But Sydney man John Mavroudis, whose son David was one of six Coogee Dolphins players killed, said he "couldn't care less" about the bombers. "I don't give a damn about them really ... we just try and get on with our lives." - with AAP