Afghan Bomb Makers Shift to New Explosives Materials

UPI | WASHINGTON - Afghan insurgents have switched from fertilizer to potassium chlorate, the material that makes matches fire, to make homemade bombs, Pentagon research shows. U.S. officials have attempted to stop the flow of fertilizer from Pakistan to Afghanistan. To an extent they succeeded, only to see a new source of explosives emerge. For the first time in the 12-year war, potassium chlorate is the most common ingredient of homemade explosives, fueling 60 percent of improvised explosives devices, or IEDs, USA Today reported Tuesday. READ MORE