A roadside bomb killed five American soldiers during combat in the western town of Ramadi the U.S military said Thursday.

The five, who were assigned to the 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, were hit while "conducting combat operations" on Wednesday, a statement by the Marines said.

The deaths brought to 1,934 the number of U.S. troops who have died since the     Iraq war started in 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Shootings and other attacks in Baghdad on Thursday killed 16 Iraqis, raising to at least 103 the number of people who have died in violence in Iraq this week, including 12 U.S. troops.

Sunni official’s house raided

Also on Thursday, U.S. forces raided the homes of two officials from a prominent Sunni Arab organization, arresting bodyguards and confiscating weapons, Sunni officials said.

Adnan al-Dulaimi, secretary-general of the Conference for Iraq's People, said soldiers in tanks and Humvees, with two helicopters circling overhead, broke into his home in western Baghdad at 2:30 a.m., put him and his family in one room, and searched the house.

"It was as if they were attacking a castle, not the home of a normal person who advises Iraq's interim government and has called for reconciliation and renounced sectarianism," al-Dulaimi told a news conference after the raid.

The other raid took place at the Baghdad home of Harith al-Obeidi, another senior official in the organization, said Iraq's largest Sunni political party, the Iraqi Islamic Party.

The U.S. military said it had conducted several raids in those areas of Baghdad on Thursday, but could not immediately identify the homes or Iraqis involved. The chief of Iraqi police in the district, Maj. Moussa Abdul-Karim said he heard reports of the raids after they took place but the U.S. military had not coordinated with the Iraqis.

The Conference for Iraq's People and the Iraqi Islamic Party are two leading political organizations representing Iraq's Sunni Arabs, which has increasingly complained of abuse as U.S. and Iraqi forces pursue resistance, the bulk of whom are Sunnis. The two groups are also campaigning to defeat a draft constitution in an Oct. 15 referendum.

Al-Dulaimi said the troops arrested four of his bodyguards and confiscated their licensed weapons. He said the Americans were acting on false tips that linked the men to the insurgency.

"This act of humiliation ... derails our efforts to encourage Sunnis to take part in the political process," said al-Dulaimi, urging Washington to stop such actions.

The two organizations are urging Sunnis to vote "no" on the constitution, which their leaders believe will divide Iraq into Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni areas, with the Sunni region having the least power and revenue.

The Iraqi Islamic Party condemned the two raids as "a savage act" and an "unjustifiable aggression" saying such treatment of "good Iraqis" could set back efforts to persuade citizens to join efforts to improve security in the country.

Al-Dulaimi is a prominent critic of present Iraqi government. On Aug. 30, at a joint news conference with U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, he called for dismissing the country's Shiite interior minister, accusing his security forces of massacring Sunnis. Al-Dulaimi warned that such killings "will only lead to troubles" at a time when U.S. officials are encouraging Sunnis to accept the draft constitution.

His call came several days after 36 Sunnis were found shot to death in a dry riverbed near the Iranian border after they were kidnapped in Baghdad.

PHOTO CAPTION

Iraqi youngsters shout standing on the remains of an US military armored vehicle destroyed by a road side bomb in Ramadi, Iraq, Monday Sept. 26 2005. (AP)