Baghdad, Iraq ? A bomb hidden in a truck loaded with dates exploded Saturday evening in the center of a Shiite farming village northeast of Baghdad, killing 26 people and injuring at least 34. Three American soldiers died in separate bombings in Baghdad and northern Iraq.

In the west of the country, U.S. Marines said they killed 10 extremists Saturday in villages near the Syrian border, where Air Force jets blasted a suspected militant safe house the day before. U.S. officials said an al-Qaida official from Saudi Arabia may have been killed in the airstrike.

The surge in violence occurred as Iraqi political blocs unveiled their lists of candidates for Dec. 15 parliamentary elections, which the United States and its coalition partners hope will help restore enough stability that they can begin sending home their forces next year.

The bomb in the Shiite village of Huweder, about 45 miles northeast of Baghdad, exploded as villagers were heading to the mosque for prayers or outdoors in the cool evening breeze to break the daylong fast they observe during the holy month of Ramadan.

“It felt as if the earth was shaking underneath our feet,” said Hussein Mouwaffaq, whose brother, Qahtan, was killed in the blast. “The street was strewn with dates. Many people were killed and injured.”

Police Lt. Ahmed Abdul Wahab, who gave the casualty figure, said the number of deaths could increase because several survivors were critically wounded. The village is in a religiously mixed area plagued by suicide attacks, roadside bombs and armed assaults on police checkpoints.

Shiite civilians are frequent targets of Sunni extremists including Iraq’s most feared terrorist group, al-Qaida in Iraq, which considers members of the majority religious community to be heretics and American collaborators. Iraq’s security services are staffed mainly by Shiites and Kurds.

A U.S. soldier gestures from a humvee as he patrols a street Saturday in Baghdad, Iraq. The campaign for Iraq's parliamentary election effectively began Saturday for the 18 candidates.

At the hospital in nearby Baqouba, seriously wounded victims lay on stretchers on a blood-smeared floor as doctors and nurses tried to cope.

On one bed, a child lay motionless with a bandage covering his knee, as a man sobbed next to him. A badly burned man writhed in agony on a stretcher as blood ran down his burned skin.

“We ask the terrorists and the so-called mujahedeen: The people who were killed, what did they do?” cried Iraqi army Capt. Ahmed Jassim.

Two American soldiers were killed Saturday when a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicle in southern Baghdad, the U.S. command said. The third soldier died in a roadside bombing earlier Saturday near Beiji, 155 miles north of the capital, the military said. Four soldiers were wounded in the Beiji blast.

Their deaths raised to at least eight the number of U.S. service members killed in Iraq since Thursday. At least 2,015 U.S. troops have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to a count by The Associated Press.

In his weekly radio address Saturday, President Bush said the war in Iraq has required “great sacrifice,” but that progress is being made and the United States must remain steadfast.

“The best way to honor the sacrifice of our fallen troops is to complete the mission and win the war on terror,” the president said. “We will train Iraqi security forces and help a newly elected government meet the needs of the Iraqi people. In doing so, we will lay the foundation of peace for our children and grandchildren.”

Public support for Bush’s handling of Iraq is at its lowest point, 37 percent, roughly where it has been since early August, according to AP-Ipsos polling.

Elsewhere, U.S. Marines clashed with insurgents Saturday in towns along the Euphrates River valley near the Syrian border. Ten militants were killed, the military said.

The U.S. Central Command also reported that Air Force jets struck a building in the same area Friday after intelligence indicated a Saudi member of al-Qaida in Iraq, known only as Abu Mahmud, was meeting with his lieutenants.

The statement did not say whether Abu Mahmud was killed. Iraqi residents said some civilians died in the attack.

On Saturday, the country’s major political blocs unveiled their top candidates for the December balloting, signaling the effective start of the election campaign. They included the religiously based Shiite alliance, which won the most seats in the Jan. 30 contest, a Sunni Arab faction, Kurds and a secular ticket led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.