IRAQ: ELECTIONS

Telegraph: US Forces Go On Offensive

Codenamed "Seeds of Liberty", the largest military operation in Iraq since the 2003 invasion has started. American-led troops are fanning across the country to secure the election, even as they try to persuade Iraqis that the United States has nothing to do with it.

Far from taking a back seat, US forces have adopted an aggressive strategy of disrupting insurgents in their heartlands, flooding soldiers into areas where previously there were no coalition troops.

"Hopefully we'll throw them off, so they can't throw off the election," said Lt Col Scott Leith, commanding the US Army's 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry from a makeshift base outside the Sunni bastion of Hawija, 150 miles north of Baghdad.