US faces WWII-scale explosives cleanup in Iraq after Islamic State fight

Iraq’s fight to defeat the Islamic State won’t end with the military defeat of the group. As the US-backed Iraqi Security Forces liberated Mosul and Tal Afar this summer, retreating fighters continued to leave behind scores of complex improvised explosive devices (IEDs), deliberately hidden in populated Read More …

Build your own bomb: How Amazon’s algorithm helps suggest explosive recipes

Amazon is linking potential bomb-making components under the “frequently bought together” tab, guiding its users to all the ingredients required to make an incendiary device. The simple products are widely available in shops too, but Amazon’s algorithm recommends product combinations. Read More …

Scotland Yard say they’re ‘chasing down suspects’ after public send them dozens of photos of the ‘crude’ bucket bomb

Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley has said ‘hundreds’ of officers are currently ‘trawling through CCTV’ in a desperate bid to close in on the ‘suspects’ involved in the Parsons Green bomb. Rowley said Met Police had embarked on a complex investigation Read More …

Defence Secretary announces £55m contract for UK bomb disposal robots at DSEI

Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon has announced a contract worth up to £55 million for 56 innovative bomb disposal robots at the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) Exhibition in London this morning. Following an initial £4 million demonstration phase, the Read More …

UNMAS Afghanistan and DMAC Strongly Condemn Brutal Murder of an Afghan Deminer in Nangarhar

The Afghanistan Directorate for Mine Action Coordination (DMAC) and the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) in Afghanistan condemn in the strongest terms the killing of an Afghan deminer by Anti Government Elements, reportedly affiliated to Daesh/Islamic State Khorasan province, Read More …

Pro-Chechen fighter killed in car blast in Kyiv, Ukraine

On 8 September at 18:08 a car blast rocked the area of Bessarabska Ploshcha in the center of Kyiv. Preliminarily, an unidentified explosive device was planted in the Black Toyota Camry with a Georgian registration plate. The spokesman for the Ministry of Internal Affairs Read More …

Drones Delivering Dirty Bombs Could Be the Next Terror Threat

Daesh terrorists have attached improvised explosive devices to commercially available drones in the past to conduct terror strikes, but the next threat may entail dropping dirty bombs from cheap unmanned aerial vehicles, a senior German intelligence official said this week. Read More …

Fluorescent polymer detects traces of explosive devices

Bomb plots could be thwarted with the help of a portable system for detecting traces of high explosives using fluorescent polymer nanoparticles, developed by A*STAR. Coated on to paper, these polymers display an explosive-detection performance far more robust than previous Read More …

The ruins of Mosul have exposed the future of high-tech warfare

Cheap Chinese-made sensors. Mad Max-style vehicle mods. Consumer drones turned into mortar-dropping weapons. The fight against Daesh is showing the high-tech, higher stakes future of urban war. Lieutenant Ahmed Abbas Ali burns his finger as he lights the fuse on Read More …