BAGHDAD, Iraq — Five U.S. soldiers were killed Saturday by a bomb in Ramadi, a hotbed of militants west of Baghdad, the military announced yesterday.

The attack was the deadliest on U.S. troops since a Sept. 29 bomb blast in the same town also killed five soldiers. A Marine also was killed by a bomb Saturday in the town of Saqlawiyah, the military said.

The most recent deaths brought to at least 1,976 the number of U.S. service members who have died since the war began in 2003, according to an Associated Press count.