The vast majority of Taliban IEDs rely for their explosives on ammonium nitrate, an ingredient in certain fertilizers, prompting a US effort to halt the influx of those fertilizers and related material into Afghanistan.
Khyam, Garcia and Hussain are accused of possessing 600kg of ammonium nitrate fertiliser - discovered by police in a storage unit in west London - for terrorist purposes, and Khyam and Shujah Mahmood are charged with possessing aluminium powder, which can also be used to make bombs.
Babar had obtained aluminium powder at Khyam's request and later found out ammonium nitrate was being kept in his flat in Lahore, where Khyam was staying.
The prosecutor said Babar had pleaded guilty in the US to obtaining ammonium nitrate and aluminium powder for use in UK bomb attacks.
These can keep the chemical mixture safely stowed away, but they rupture and release their contents when the concrete near them cracks.To make the capsules, the team stirred together a solution of water, urea, ammonium chloride and a benzene derivative called resorcinol.
At the time, Europe's chemical industry was changing fast as the traditional model in which conglomerates made everything from ammonium phosphate to zinc alkyls crumbled.
On a table in front of him sit pots of ammonium, potassium carbonate and phosphate, bomb-making ingredients.
Crucially, the researchers have found out how to create this arrangement cheaply.First, they mix a solution of ammonium tungstate with a polymer to create a suspension of plastic droplets, each of which contains ammonium tungstate.
Second, the explosive was not a homemade cocktail of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil, but a high-grade explosive of the type used by the army or in industry.
Her cargo of containers of ammonium nitrate fertiliser rolled overboard, puncturing the ship and releasing oil.
It was travelling within Mexico, en route from an explosives plant to a mine, with a cargo of 25 tons of ammonium nitrate.
