Sri Lanka’s suicide bombers are thought to have used TATP, chemically known as triacetone triperoxide, an explosive made from commonly available household ingredients including nail polish remover – acetone – and hydrogen peroxide.
The eight or more suicide bombers in Sri Lanka must have purchased large amounts of these two ingredients, yet despite being on the police “radar screen,” no one picked it up. According to news reports, it is suspected they made the stuff in a copper factory in Wellampitiya, a suburb of Colombo.
The factory was owned by Inshaf Ahamad, who is believed to have blown himself up at the Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo.
Middle-class bombers
While the full scale of the conspiracy is not yet known, the suicide bombers appear to have been successful middle-class people. The father of Inshaf Ahamad is known as a successful spice trader and he was arrested after bombs in his home went off, killing three policemen.
It has long been the case that many top terrorists are, in fact, successful entrepreneurs or professionals, including doctors and dentists such as George Habash, known as al-Hakim, or “the doctor,” who was educated at the American University in Beirut.
He famously headed the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and also for a time the PLO. Likewise, Yasser Arafat was a university graduate and came from a middle-class family.
But perhaps the most famous was Osama Bin Laden, who came from a well-connected and influential family of millionaires in Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden attended the secular Al-Thager Model School and King Abdulaziz University. He studied business administration and had a degree in civil engineering.
TATP plus shrapnel was used in the Manchester suicide bombing in 2017 that killed 23 people and wounded another 39. The bomber was Salman Ramadan Abedi, a local man of Libyan ancestry who was 22 years old.
More than half of those killed were women and children. He was previously reported to police as an extremist, but police did not regard him as high risk despite a clear background of fighting with Islamic Jihadists in Libya.
He had attended the University of Salford, but dropped out. Previously he had been a fighter with his father in Libya and ironically was rescued in 2014 by the Royal Navy, who extracted him and other British citizens from Tripoli. He had been fighting with an Islamic group.
TATP and shrapnel
According to police reports, it is believed Abedi made the TATP explosive himself but brought triggering material with him from Libya, probably supplied by a Salafist Jihadist organization connected to ISIS.
On March 22, 2016, there were two suicide bombings at the Brussels Zaventem airport and another at the Maalbeek Metro station in central Brussels. Thirty-two people died in these attacks and more than 300 were injured.
The airport bombs were carried in two large suitcases and the Maalbeek Metro bombing took place on a train. The bombs were made up of TATP and shrapnel.
The Brussels terrorists were directly connected to the 2015 attacks in Paris that included the Bataclan Theater and the Stade de France in Saint-Denis. At the stadium there were three explosions set off by suicide bombers, another explosion took place on a Paris street, and at the Bataclan, the terrorists blew themselves up with suicide vests after police finally broke through.
All the explosive materials were TATP.
ISIS was directly responsible for the Brussels and Paris attacks and for the Manchester suicide bombing. ISIS has already taken credit for the Sri Lanka attacks.
TATP has also been showing up elsewhere, including in the United States. A Florida man named Jared Coburn, 37-years-old at the time of his arrest, was making TATP in his home. He also had other explosives in the home.
TATP is extraordinarily volatile and many ISIS, Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorists have blown themselves up handing TATP. In other cases, they escaped death but were badly wounded. Israelis call these “work accidents.”
Most standard bomb sensing equipment cannot detect TATP, but new sensors are being introduced that use colorimetric sensor arrays – essentially sensing the temperature of TATP released gases. TATP also gives off a fairly strong odor of decomposing fruit.
First off I would like to say wonderful blog! I had a quick question in which I’d like to ask if
you do not mind. I was interested to find out how
you center yourself and clear your mind prior to writing.
I have had a tough time clearing my mind in getting my ideas out.
I do enjoy writing however it just seems like the first 10 to
15 minutes are generally lost simply just trying to figure out how to begin. Any ideas or hints?
Cheers!
Link exchange is nothing else however it is simply placing the
other person’s weblog link on your page at suitable place and other person will also do
same for you.
Thanks for finally talking about >`Mother of Satan explosive used in Sri Lanka bombings – Asia Times <Loved it!
Hi there to all, since I am really eager of reading this weblog’s post to be updated on a regular basis.
It carries good stuff.
Excellent post. I used to be checking constantly this blog and I am inspired!
Extremely helpful information specially the ultimate section 🙂
I take care of such info much. I was looking for this certain info for a very lengthy time.
Thank you and good luck.
I don’t know whether it’s just me or if perhaps everyone else encountering problems with your
blog. It appears as though some of the written text within your posts are running off the screen. Can somebody else
please provide feedback and let me know if this is happening to them too?
This may be a issue with my web browser because I’ve had this happen before.
Thanks natalielise plenty of fish
I was extremely pleased to uncover this web site. I want
to to thank you for your time due to this wonderful read!!
I definitely liked every bit of it and i also have you
bookmarked to look at new stuff in your blog.
Unquestionably believe that that you said. Your favourite reason appeared to be on the net the easiest thing to
understand of. I say to you, I definitely get annoyed whilst people consider concerns
that they just don’t recognise about. You controlled to hit the nail upon the top and also defined out the whole thing without having
side-effects , other people could take a signal. Will likely
be back to get more. Thanks
That is a really good tip especially to those new to the blogosphere.
Simple but very accurate information… Thank you for sharing this one.
A must read article!
Excellent article. I certainly love this site. Continue composing!
Excellent post! We are linking to this particularly great article on our website.
Keep up the good writing.
With havin so much content do you ever run into any problems of plagorism or copyright infringement?
My website has a lot of exclusive content I’ve either created myself or outsourced but it appears a lot of it is popping it up all over the internet without my agreement.
Do you know any techniques to help protect against content from
being ripped off? I’d genuinely appreciate it.
WOW just what I was looking for. Came here by searching
for plenty of fish dating site
Hi, I do believe this is an excellent web site.
I stumbledupon it 😉 I may come back yet again since i have saved
as a favorite it. Money and freedom is the best way to change,
may you be rich and continue to help other people.
Sweet blog! I found it while searching on Yahoo News.
Do you have any tips on how to get listed in Yahoo News?
I’ve been trying for a while but I never seem to get there!
Many thanks
I don’t even know how I ended up here, but
I thought this post was great. I don’t know who
you are but certainly you are going to a famous blogger
if you are not already 😉 Cheers!
Hey I know this is off topic but I was wondering if you knew of any widgets I
could add to my blog that automatically tweet my newest twitter updates.
I’ve been looking for a plug-in like this for quite some time
and was hoping maybe you would have some experience with something like this.
Please let me know if you run into anything.
I truly enjoy reading your blog and I look forward to your new updates.
I’ve been exploring for a little for any high quality articles or
weblog posts on this sort of house . Exploring in Yahoo I eventually stumbled upon this
web site. Studying this info So i’m glad to convey that I’ve a very excellent
uncanny feeling I found out just what I needed. I so much undoubtedly will make certain to
don?t fail to remember this site and give it a look regularly.