Potassium chlorate — the stuff that makes matches catch fire — has surpassed fertilizer as the explosive of choice for insurgents in Afghanistan:
Potassium chlorate is an odorless white crystal or powder that, when combined with a fuel, forms an explosive mixture. Ammonium nitrate fertilizer, meanwhile, requires several steps to transform into an explosive.
“It’s much, much easier,” Sweetser said.
It’s also cheaper. A 110-pound bag of ammonium nitrate costs $160 in Afghanistan; the same-size bag of potassium chlorate goes for $48, according to JIEDDO. The average IED in 2012 contained about 52 pounds of ammonium nitrate. Such a bomb cost about $416 to produce.
The price soars when a suicide bomber drives a car or truckload of explosives into a target. That can cost as much as $19,593, according to JIEDDO.
Insurgents in Afghanistan generally pack explosives into plastic jugs used to store cooking oil. The typical IED in Afghanistan is triggered by the victim stepping on it or driving over it.
“What the insurgents hit on there is the low- to no-metal victim-operated IED,” Sweetser said. “It’s kind of the signature device of the conflict in Afghanistan. Very simple to construct with readily available materials. And very hard to counteract.”