Three suicide car bombs hit northern Iraqi city

Three suicide car bombs exploded nearly simultaneously in a city north of Baghdad today, killing and wounding scores of people, hospital officials said.

The attacks hit a bank, a vegetable market and another location in central Balad, a mostly Shiite city 50 miles north of the capital.

Dr. Khaled al-Azawi at Balad Hospital said scores of people were killed and wounded and that many of the victims had been taken there.

AP A hospital official later put the death toll at 40, with many others wounded.