Report: Baghdad 'crackdown' begins

Iraqi men pulled from their homes and 'detained' by U.S. forces today in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Baghdad's streets were electric with tension Wednesday as U.S. officials confirmed the new security operation was under way. U.S. armor rushed through streets, and Iraqi armored personnel carriers guarded bridges and major intersections.

New coils of barbed-wire and blast barriers marked checkpoints that caused traffic bottlenecks. U.S. Apache helicopters whipped the air over parts of the capital where they hadn't been seen before...

At checkpoints that seemed to have been thrown up overnight -- some of them blocking half the lanes of traffic on wide streets -- Iraqi police and army soldiers searched cars at random. Drivers and passengers had to get out and show identity papers.

Adding to the tension, Iraqi army and police convoys fired rounds into the air above motorists, warning them to make way for passing forces. The security troops drove over traffic medians and into incoming traffic.

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