Feds find trove of explosive materials, including devastating PETN, at IVF clinic bombers house: Full-blown bomb lab

Authorities found huge quantities of highly explosive materials in the house of alleged IVF clinic bomber Guy Bartkus, including what appears to be PETN – a devastating compound used in terror attacks around the world.Bomb crews found multiple precursor chemicals in the home of the “pro-mortalist” madman, who allegedly used a car bomb to blow up an IVF clinic in Palm Springs, Calif., on Saturday, killing himself and wounding four others, law enforcement sources said.Batkus’ neighbor in the town of Twentynine Palms – an hour drive from Palm Springs – said FBI agents evacuated the neighborhood and warned him of what he described as a “full-blown bomb lab” just a stone’s throw from his house.“Five FBI agents came knocking on my door…They told me, ‘The house behind you has suspected bomb-making materials,” the neighbor, Thomas Bickel, told The Post.“I talked about it with agents.There was a full-blown bomb lab in this guy’s house.”“I know how powerful and destructive IEDs can be,” added Bickel, who said he was an Army veteran injured by bomb shrapnel while serving in Afghanistan.“Sitting here with my kids, knowing that this guy was 50 feet away — a bomb of that magnitude could have destroyed our house.

Just knowing that he was working on that right here while I was hanging out with my kids — it was pretty insane,” Bickel said.PETN, which stands for pentaerythritol tetranitrate, is an extremely dangerous compound similar to nitroglycerin.It had been used in terror attacks and attempted attacks throughout the world, including the 1983 Beirut barracks bombings, the attempted “shoe bombing” by Richard Colvin Reid in 2001, and the 2009 Christmas Day bomb plot by the al-Qaeda terror group.Saturday’s car bomb blast destroyed at least one building of American Reproductive Centers in Palm Springs and severely damaged two others.It shattered windows on buildings three blocks away, and its reverberations could be felt in the next ...