Thai forensics experts examining a series of bombs that went off in the Muslim far south at the weekend found they contained explosives from neighbouring Malaysia, police investigators said on Wednesday.Chemical tests on some defused bombs had revealed the explosives to be an emulsion-based blasting compound sold in Malaysia under the name Emulex, a senior bomb squad officer told Reuters. "They were emulsion explosives, mainly used in rock quarries," the police colonel said. They were the same as 90 sticks of Emulex police found in a rubber plantation in Narathiwat province last year, he added.
Another senior police investigator said some of the digital watches used as timers in the weekend bombs had warranty stickers on the back suggesting they came from a Malaysian distributor. The watch models -- two types of Casio -- were not sold in Thailand, he said.
The militants, who have never made their aims public, had started using digital watches as timers as the police and the army became more proficient at jamming or tracing signals from mobile phones used as detonators, he said.