URI Expert: Bombs’ chemistry can help investigators of Brussels attacks
By: Rebecca Turco
Email: rturco@abc6.com
KINGSTON, R.I. – We are learning more about the bombs used in the deadly Brussels terror attacks.
Two bombs went off during Tuesday terror attack at a Brussels airport, but a third one inside a suitcase stayed intact until after the bomb squad arrived.
"The unexploded bomb is a great find for investigators,” explained Dr. Jimmie Oxley, an explosives expert with URI. She says the chemistry of that bomb could point to the people responsible. "Everything that went into that bomb was bought somewhere and [investigators] can track that back,” she said. “It may be a matter of finding folks through credit card if they did that."
Authorities raided the apartment where two of the attackers identified had stayed. They found around 33 pounds of a peroxide-based explosive known as TATP, as well as other explosive-making materials. Oxley says that would be enough to make many more bombs.
TATP bombs were used in the Paris terror attacks in November. ISIS claimed responsibility for those attacks and the attacks in Brussels, leading some experts to suggest maybe both bombings were the work of the same terrorist cell.
"Being able to link one crime with another crime will help you put the pieces together,” Oxley said.
Once authorities know for sure the chemical makeup of all of the bombs, that will only help in their investigation, according to Oxley.
© WLNE-TV 2016
