A car bomb attack on an army patrol killed 12 people and wounded 16 in the city of Mosul, while a roadside bomb killed a soldier and wounded two other people near the city, Iraqi officers and doctors said on Monday.

The blast targeted a military convoy in Mosul, 400 kilometers north of Baghdad, the al-Sumaria news website said.

Another attack on police checkpoint in Mosul left two police officers dead on Sunday.

Iraq has seen a surge in violence since the beginning of the year. The surge of insurgency in Iraq has raised fears of a return to the sectarian violence that pushed the country to the brink of civil war in 2006 and 2007.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has warned of plots by foreign hands trying to pull Iraq into a secterian war.

Earlier this month he called on all Iraqi political parties and tribes to put aside their disputes and get united to save the country from outsiders' conspiracy.

NTJ/SHI