MOSUL, Iraq - A suicide bomber attacked an Iraqi army convoy in the northern city of Mosul early on Monday, killing at least eight soldiers and two passers-by, police said.    

The bomber drove a vehicle packed with explosives up to a military convoy in the eastern Kokchali district of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, before blowing himself and his car up.

"A suicide bomber was following the convoy and when it stopped in the middle of road, he detonated his vehicle right behind it," said a policeman at the scene who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

A further 18 people, most of them soldiers, were also wounded in the blast.

It was not clear who was behind the blast, but suicide bombings are the hallmark of al-Qaida.

The attacks are the latest in a campaign of violence across Iraq that has raised fears of a return to full-blown conflict in a country where Kurds, Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims have yet to find a stable way of sharing power.