BEIRUT, September 26 (RIA Novosti) — Iraqi sappers have defused explosives on six donkeys, rigged by the Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq’s central province Diyala, official representative of the police department of the province Col. Ghalib al-Attiyah told Iraqi TV channel Alsumaria on Friday.

"Sappers have defused six donkeys rigged with explosives by militants ... Our intelligence services have discovered the cattle near the town of Muqdadiyah (35 km north-east of Baqubah). No one was hurt while defusing. We also managed to detain a suspect," the colonel said.

According to him, the extremist militants are using all possible means, including the now rigging cattle with explosives, to attack checkpoints of Iraqi security forces in the region of Muqdadiyah, all of the northern neighborhood of which are under the control of IS militants and are considered to be the main stronghold of the group in the province of Diyala.

The IS, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has been fighting against Syrian government since 2012. In June 2014, the group extended its attacks to northern and western Iraq, declaring a caliphate on the territories over which it had control.