A roadside explosion killed two students in Baghdad, while U.S. troops detained a key member of a leading Shiite party south of the capital on Monday, a well- informed police source said.

The roadside bomb detonated in Baghdad's Saidiyah area in the morning when a civilian car carrying two students of Baghdad University passed by, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

In separate incident, the U.S. troops raided the house of Sheikh Diyaa, a local leader of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) in the Iskandriyah town, 50 km south of Baghdad, the source said.

After Diyaa's detention, gunmen loyal to the Shiite cleric attacked the U.S. troops, which then withdrew from the area after wounding one of the attackers, the source added.

The Iranian backed SCIRI is one of the most powerful political Shiite parties in the Iraqi government and the parliament, led by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim.

The U.S. military did not comment on the incident.

Source: Xinhua