Boston bombs looking more and more like the Middle East

The Boston Globe is reporting that the makeup of the bombs used in Boston points to the Middle East.

The Boston bombs were packed into pressure cookers and hidden in backpacks or duffel bags, according to multiple press accounts citing unidentified sources, another similarity with some Mideast attacks using “improvised explosive devices,’’ or IEDs.

One of the bombs used in a foiled attack in New York’s Times Square in 2010 was fashioned from a pressure cooker. A joint warning issued by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security in 2010 said pressure cookers has been used for bombs in multiple attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Nepal.

Reports from medical staff at Boston hospitals who treated victims in the marathon attack indicate the bombs in this case were packed with BB’s, nails, and other projectiles intended to maximize human carnage. That contrasts with the large truck bombs that were used in Oklahoma City in 1995 and in the garage of the World Trade Center North Tower in 1993, which were intended to inflict damage on buildings, as well as people.

IED’s pack a much smaller punch, are cheaper, and easier to carry. They have been used in Iraq and Afghanistan with devastating effect on American troops in convoys of military vehicles.
No one has taken responsibility for the twin bombings on Boylston Street that killed three people and injured more than 150 near the Boston marathon finish line.

A senior US law enforcement official in Washington added that the fact that no group has taken responsibility has officials speculating that it might not be the work of a well-known international terrorist group like Al Qaeda, Hezbollah or one of its affiliates but a domestic group or individual inspired by the hallmark tactics of terrorist groups in recent years,

The Pakistani Taliban also said in a statement it was not responsible for the attack, unlike the attempted car bombing in New York’s Times Square in 2010 that it claimed responsibility for.
But officials in Washington have been warning about the possibility of so-called improvised explosive devises in recent weeks.

More on the bombs here and here and here.