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Bomb kills 25 in Iraq

Three U.S. soldiers die in two incidents

SPECIAL REPORT

• Interactive: Who's who in Iraq

• Interactive: Sectarian divide

• Timeline: Bloodiest days for civilians

• Coalition Casualties

• Special Report

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A pickup truck carrying dates and packed with explosives blew up and killed at least 25 people in a market in a small Shiite town north of Baquba on Saturday, an interior ministry official said.

Three U.S. soldiers also died Saturday, authorities said.

At least 52 people were wounded in the attack that targeted civilians in town of Hwaider, Iraqi police said, and shops and restaurants were damaged. A doctor at Baquba hospital said at least 10 of the wounded were in critical condition.

Hwaider is about 5 miles (8 km) north of Baquba and 35 miles (56 km) north of Baghdad.

Insurgents carried out several attacks in and around Baquba this week, most of which targeted Iraqi police officers.

The city is in Diyala province, an ethnically mixed region with a small Sunni majority that has endured its share of sectarian violence.

Two of the U.S. troops who were killed Saturday were Task Force Baghdad soldiers on patrol in a southern part of the capital, the U.S. military said. They died in a blast from a roadside bomb.

The third U.S. soldier died after the vehicle he was riding in struck a land mine southwest of Bayji, near Tikrit. Four other Task Force Liberty soldiers were wounded, two of whom returned to their unit.

In the Iraq war, 2,014 U.S. service members have died, including 81 this month.

Other developments

Two associates of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the most powerful cleric in Iraq, said Friday the Shiite leader may demand a timetable for the withdrawal of coalition troops in 2006, according to The Associated Press. The AP reported the associates claimed the reclusive but influential leader is suspicious of the United States.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush on Monday, told Italian television station La7 that he tried repeatedly to dissuade Bush from going to war, the AP reported Saturday, citing excepts obtained by the Apcom and ANSA new agencies. Berlusconi, who is up for re-election in 2006, reportedly said in the interview, to be broadcast Monday, that "I was never convinced that war was the best system to bring democracy to the country."

CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.

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