Israeli Embassy blast: Sticky bombs pose a new terror threat

New Delhi, Feb 14: The stick on bomb used in the Isreali Embassy blast in New Delhi on Monday, Feb 13 is the first attacks of its kind to take place in the country raising security concerns.

A sticky bomb can be easily placed on a moving vehicle by terrorists usually place to an appropriate part of the vehicle with magnetic device or adhesive tape.

According to explosive experts, sticky bomb were earlier used in the Second World War, designed by British soldiers, that contained explosives with a strong adhesive that could stick it to the tanks.

"The bombs offer the attacker an opportunity to fix the bomb to a specific car quickly... and to detonate the explosive charge remotely," said Scott Weiner, research assistant, Institute for the Study of War, in an commentary written on sticky bombs.

Stick on bombs have long surfaced in Hollywood movies where plain looking sticks woven together can turn out be deadly explosives. Arnold Schwarzenegger's famous movie Commando used them to destroy vehicles and buildings in the movie.

In 2010, scientists at the Argonne National Laboratory, US propsed technique to detect sticky bombs on vehicles. One of the techniques sees the changes in the magnetic field around a vehicle when attached with a magnetic device, while other technique addresses the use of adhesives than that of magnets, that see a change in tyre pressure if a bomb is placed on a vehicle.

Sources reveal that the bomb was the size of a human palm.

Parallels have been drawn between the bomb attack that took place yesterday and the bomb attack by motorcycle riders that killed a young Iranian nuclear scientist in Jan this year.

Despite repeated terror attacks in the country and setting up of the National Investigation Agency after the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, the government has again failed in the eyes of public.

OneIndia News