INSURGENTS IN Iraq attached explosives to a dog and tried to blow up a military convoy near the northern oil centre of Kirkuk last week.

The canine bomb went off but according to police, the only casualty was the unfortunate animal.

The militants wrapped an explosive belt around the dog and detonated it as the convoy passed through Dakuk, 25 miles south of Kirkuk, said the town's police chief, Col Mohammed Barzaji.

"The dog was torn apart by the explosion which caused neither injury among the soldiers nor any damage."

Col Barzaji said the bomb had been detonated outside a Shia mosque and police subsequently detained eight suspects.

This was not the first time that animals have been used in insurgent attacks. In 2003, donkey carts were used to conceal makeshift multiple rocket launchers in a flurry of attacks in Baghdad.

Animal carcasses and human corpses have also been used to conceal explosives.