Sunday, May 29 2005 18:07 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Baghdad: Iraqi security forces launched a high-profile crackdown targeting terrorists in this battle-scarred city today (May 29, 2005), but insurgents hit back with suicide bombings and ambushes that killed at least 17 people.

A British soldier was also killed in a bomb blast in southern Iraq today, while the US military announced the death of a US Marine, who was slain in a homemade bomb attack northwest of Baghdad.

Operation Lightning was launched, as a direct challenge to the bloody wave of militant attacks that have killed more than 700 people, since the April 28 announcement of Iraq's new Shiite-led Government, according to an Associated Press count.

But despite the heavier than normal Iraqi police and army presence throughout the capital and on its southern and northern outskirts, insurgents kept up their steady pace of violence.

A suicide attacker detonated a car bomb outside the heavily fortified Iraqi Oil Ministry and killed two security guards and wounded a policeman and passer-by, said Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad.

The blast happened at about 1:20 pm local time 15:50 hrs (IST) when the militant tried to ram a late model Volkswagen sedan packed with explosives through the gate of the Ministry building, located in eastern Baghdad, Jihad said.

Guards fired on the vehicle, which exploded about 20 meters (yards) from the gate, killing at least two guards, Jihad said.

Before dawn, insurgents attacked an Iraqi army checkpoint in Youssifiyah, 20 kms south of Baghdad, killing nine soldiers and injuring one, said Dr Dawood Al Taaei of nearby Mahmoudiya hospital.