Baghdad, Iraq ? Sunni Arab politicians stepped up demands Sunday for an end to U.S. and Iraqi military operations, claiming they threaten Sunni participation in next month’s elections – a key U.S. goal. The U.S. command announced the deaths of three more American troops.

Meanwhile, some 1,100 Iraqi lawyers said they withdrew from Saddam Hussein’s defense team over the slayings of two colleagues representing co-defendants of the ousted leader. The main attorneys for Saddam and his seven co-defendants had already threatened to boycott the next trial session Nov. 28.

U.S. commanders have said offensives, especially those in the western province of Anbar near the Syrian border, are aimed at encouraging Sunni Arabs to vote in the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections without fear of intimidation by insurgents opposed to the process.

However, several major Sunni Arab political groups insisted Sunday that such operations risk keeping Sunni turnout low because civilians are displaced by the fighting or they will be too frightened to venture out to the polls.

Some alleged the Shiite-led government was intentionally carrying out operations northeast of Baghdad to discourage Sunni Arabs from voting – a charge that officials have denied.

An Iraqi soldier guards blindfolded detainees, suspected to be insurgents, Sunday in Baghdad, Iraq.

Ayad al-Izi, a member of the largest Sunni Arab party, charged that raids by the Interior Ministry in religiously mixed Diyala province were politically motivated to cow Sunnis.

“Such practices are aimed at foiling the political process in the country and they ignite the strife in such areas,” said al-Izi of the Iraqi Islamic Party.

The Interior Ministry said 310 people were arrested in the Diyala raids, which followed a truck bombing in a Shiite village that killed about 20 people. It did not say whether all those arrested were Sunnis.

In a statement Sunday, the U.S. command said two Marines were killed the day before by a bomb west of Baghdad and an American soldier died in a vehicle accident in western Iraq. The latest deaths brought to at least 2,065 the number of U.S. military personnel who have died since the war began in 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The statement announcing the withdrawal of the 1,100 Iraqi lawyers also said the Saddam trial should be delayed because the government is not providing sufficient protection. The government says protection was offered but the lawyers refused.