The bombers who allegedly planned to attack Israeli targets in Bangkok, Thailand, were armed with professional-grade explosives hidden in $27 portable radios.
Authorities discovered an Iranian hit squad had at least five of these bombs with them when their plot in Thailand blew up in their faces last week.
A photo shows one of the devices that was recovered from an Iranian safe house. It was packed with ball bearings for maximum damage and had six magnets on the side, meaning it could be stuck to the underside of a car.
The inexpensive Chinese-made radio was also rigged by the Iranians with a standard American hand grenade pin and detonator that, when pulled, would have set the device off in about four and a half seconds, ABC News reported.
Clever cover: Iranian operatives are hiding explosives in the guts of cheap Chinese-made radios like these, according to reports
Botched: Saeid Moradi blew off his own legs when one of the bombs he allegedly threw bounced back to him
It's unclear how the bombs were brought into the country -- whether they were smuggled in covertly or taken in diplomatic satchels.
The plot against the Israelis was foiled a week ago when some of the explosives accidentally detonated at a safe house serving as a base of operations for Saeid Moradi and at least two other Iranian colleagues.
Moradi, bloody, allegedly fled the house with two bombs and tried to hail a taxi to escape the scene. When the cab driver wouldn't stop, he threw on bomb at the car, injuring four people on the street, according to Thai authorities.
He threw a second bomb at police when they arrived, but it bounced off a car and exploded near him -- blowing off his own legs.
Moradi and two other Iranian nationals are in police custody and charged in connection with the botched attack. Officials have named three more, two men and a woman, who they are searching for.
ABC News reports that American and Israeli explosives experts say the bombs are strikingly similar to those used in two other attacks on Israeli targets outside the Middle East.
Fleeing: These surveillance photos show the three alleged bombers as they escaped their safehouse. Saeid Moradi, center, fled carrying two of the radio bombs
Disposal: A bomb technician clears the area after an alleged Iranian operative threw two explosive devices last week
A bomb was found stuck to the underside of an Israeli diplomat's car in Tbilisi, Georgia. Within hours, an explosive attached to the car carrying an Israeli diplomat's wife blew up in New Dehli, India. The woman, her driver and two bystanders were injured in the attack.
The bombings are widely believed to be retaliation for explosions, believed to be the work of Israelis, that killed at least five of Iran's top nuclear scientists.
All of this comes at a time of mounting military tension between Iran and Israel. British and US officials have urged Israel not to unilaterally strike the Islamist republic.
However, officials are beginning to worry that Israel might send warplanes to bomb Iranian nuclear sites before the country can complete a reactor -- or worse, an atomic bomb.
Israeli warplanes are suspected of preemptively wiping out nuclear sites in both Iraq and Syria.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2104609/Iranian-hit-squad-targeting-Israelis-hid-bombs-27-portable-radios.html#ixzz1n8gOmCcT
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