US FORCES hunting down followers of Iraq’s most wanted terrorist pushed into a lawless region north of the Euphrates River near the Syrian border yesterday.

EXILED Iraqi voters began voting in western Sydney, Australia, last night in their country's historic elections which are the first since former dictator Saddam Hussein was ousted in 2003.

INSURGENTS killed 17 Iraqi police and National Guards yesterday in a string of bloody ambushes, bombings and suicide attacks aimed at wrecking Iraq’s January 30 national election.

IRAQI Prime Minister Iyad Allawi yesterday said elections would be held on schedule in January despite a surge in violence and more than a score of hostages under threat of death from insurgents.

AN Islamic militant group denied yesterday it had beheaded a US marine missing in Iraq, leaving the fate of the Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun unclear.