Thai committee to test suspect 'bomb detectors' also under scrutiny in Iraq, Britain

Thailand, which is fighting an insurgency in the Muslim-dominated south, is the latest country to re-examine the expensive devices that purport to screen for explosives after tests found several of them ineffective.

Thai Science and Technology Minister Kalaya Sophonpanich said that both laboratory and field tests of the GT200 devices, made by U.K. company Global Technical Ltd, would be carried out by a 13-member committee that would include "users, scientists and statisticians."

The move comes after more than a week of Thai officials' insistence that the devices work, despite a BBC expose that had scientists test several bomb detectors - including the GT200 model used in Thailand - and they reached the consensus that the devices were worthless and had no scientific basis for working.

Britain banned the export of one such device, called the ADE651, to Iraq and Afghanistan last month after the BBC report. The U.S. military also found that device unreliable, and the Iraqi government, which also uses the ADE651, has launched an investigation.

Thailand's military uses another, similar model of handheld bomb detector called the GT200, having purchased more than 500 of them since 2005 at prices ranging from 900,000-1.2 million baht ($27,000-36,000).

In the wake of the media expose and British crackdown, Thai officials defended their use of GT200 and have insisted that they work, but local media and activists insist that they are no more effective than guesswork.