Iraqi forces launch crackdown; al Qaeda defiant

BAGHDAD, Monday (Reuters) Iraqi forces on Sunday launched their biggest security crackdown since the fall of Saddam Hussein with the start of a sweep by 40,000 Iraqi troops who will seal off Baghdad and hunt for insurgents.

Over the next few days, Iraqi soldiers would block major routes into Baghdad and search the city district by district, looking for foreign Arab fighters and Iraqi guerrillas, Iraqi officials said. They would be backed up by around 10,000 U.S. troops deployed in the capital during Operation Lightning. Al Qaeda's network in Iraq said it had responded with a new offensive of its own. Insurgents killed 20 people across Iraq, including a British soldier.

An Internet statement from the group said its offensive was led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi "under his planning and supervision". "This ... is in response to the futile plan announced by defence and interior ministers to seal off Baghdad." An Internet posting on Web sites used by insurgents said last week that the Jordanian leader of al Qaeda group in Iraq had been wounded. Britain's Sunday Times newspaper said he had been moved to Iran for treatment after being wounded by shrapnel in a U.S. rocket attack.