The explosive device placed in the car that killed prominent investigative Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was created with the use of military explosive. Sources close to the Maltese Police Force said that the explosive used in the crime last Monday was kind of Semtex.

Maltese investigators with the assistance of Dutch Forensic Experts and FBI agents are investigating the origins of the explosive device and who was behind the assassination of Caruana Galizia.

Semtex is a general purpose plastic explosive and it is used in commercial blasting, demolition and in certain military applications. Semtex was developed and manufactured in Czechoslovakia during the sixties and eventually became popular with terrorists’ attacks because it was, until recently, extremely difficult to detect, as in the case of Pan Am Flight 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.

The explosive was widely exported, notably to the government of Vietnam during the Vietnam War. However, the main consumer was Libya with about 700 tons of Semtex exported to the Qaddafi’s regime between 1975 and 1981. It has also been used by Islamic militants in the Middle East and by the Irish Republican Army and the Irish National Liberation Army in Northern Ireland.

(ITALPRESS/MNA).

Source: medNews