BAGHDAD, April 11 (Xinhuanet) -- A suicide car bombing occurred on Monday evening in Iraq's Samarra, north of Baghdad, killing three Iraqis and wounding more than 20 others, said reports reaching here from the restive city.

    Local hospital sources were quoted as saying that the incident occurred when a pickup truck exploded near a US convoy patrolling a crowded market in the Al-Dubat neighborhood of Samarra.

    A doctor at Samarra's main hospital told the press that his facility received three dead and more than 20 wounded, including five children and a woman, after the attack.

    "I saw a pickup truck ram into a four-vehicle US convoy," said a witness.

    There was no immediate report on the incident from the US military.

    Earlier on Monday, two suicide car bombers blew up their cars at a US military base near a customs station in the town of Qaim by the Iraqi-Syrian border, some 400 km west of Baghdad, Qatar-based al-Jazeera TV channel reported.

    The first blast took place after a suicide bomber drove an explosive-laden vehicle into a checkpoint outside the US base before the gate of the customs station, and then the second suicide car bomb blew up, causing several casualties.

    Clashes immediately broke out between insurgents and US and Iraqi forces in the area after the attack, al-Jazeera said citing witnesses at the scene.

    Samarra and Qaim have been the scenes of violence and insurgency against the US forces since the US-led invasion in 2003. Enditem