Bulldozers work to contain a huge fire after saboteurs targeted a deserted oil well in the Hanjirah area 12 miles northwest of Kirkuk, on Thursday.

yahya ahmed / the associated press

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BAGHDAD — A bomb hidden in a parked car struck the funeral procession of a Sunni tribal leader who was gunned down earlier Thursday, killing at least 26 mourners as al-Qaida appeared to turn up its campaign of frightening its growing opposition into submission.

The attack in Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, targeted the passing procession for Alaa Zuwaid, a 60-year-old restaurant owner who was part of a Sunni tribe that had formed an alliance with other tribal leaders against al-Qaida.

Police and medical officials said 45 other people were wounded in the bombing.

Militants shot and killed Zuwaid that morning in front of his home, police said — nearly a month after his 25-year-old son was slain as he walked down the street.

In all, 87 people were killed or found dead in sectarian violence across Iraq on Thursday.

In Washington, President Bush warned Americans on Thursday to brace for a "bloody" August in Iraq leading up to a crucial September assessment by Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in that war-torn nation.

"What they're going to try to do is kill as many innocent people as they can to try to influence the debate here at home," Bush said, calling it "interesting that they recognize that the death of innocent people could shake our will."

Bush's comments at a Rose Garden news conference came as lawmakers moved toward expected final approval of a compromise war-funding bill stripped of the troop withdrawal deadlines backed by Democratic leaders. A similar provision in an earlier version of the measure led to a Bush veto.

Meanwhile, thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops pressed their search through the fields of southern Iraq in scorching temperatures, and the military said it would not call off the hunt for two missing U.S. soldiers.

The body of a third soldier — 20-year-old Pfc. Joseph Anzack Jr., missing since a May 12 ambush claimed by al-Qaida — was pulled from the Euphrates River and identified Wednesday.

Members of Anzack's platoon choked back tears at news of his death and said they would not stop looking for the two others.

"We can't leave them behind. I just hope that they have enough faith to keep them going. What they're going through right now, I can't imagine," said Pfc. Sammy Rhodes, 25, of Albuquerque.

The U.S. military also announced Thursday that two U.S. soldiers were killed the day in combat operations in Iraq's Anbar Province, raising the American death toll for May to at least 82. Last month, 104 U.S. troops were killed in Iraq.

Rites were for a Sunni leader slain same day