MOSUL, Iraq, (Reuters) – A suicide bomber detonated a truck packed with explosives outside an Iraqi army and police base in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Friday, killing two people and wounding 70 others, police said.

An insurgency led by al Qaeda and other militants has proven stubborn in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, even as the violence set off by the 2003 U.S.-led invasion has waned elsewhere in Iraq over the past year.

The attack killed one soldier and one policeman, and at least 15 other policemen were among the wounded, police said. The blast destroyed five Iraqi and two U.S. armoured vehicles.

The U.S. military was not immediately available to comment.

Insurgent groups have exploited the divisions among Mosul’s patchwork of Kurds, Sunni Arabs, Christians and other groups to remain effective, and are also known to retreat to hideouts in the remote and mountainous region surrounding the city.