Defying suicide bombs and mortars, Iraqis turned out in their millions yesterday to vote in the country's first free elections in half a century, write Jack Fairweather in Baghdad, and Nicholas Birch in Suleimaniya, north-eastern Iraq.
Insurgents out to wreck the vote targeted polling stations around the country in a wave of suicide bombings, killing at least 37.
But with an unprecedented security clampdown, election officials estimated that roughly 60 per cent of 14 million registered voters took part in the ballot.
In many parts of the country the turnout exceeded expectations, including in Sunni Arab regions where the insurgency is strongest.
"This is the start of a new era; for the first time, Iraqis are deciding on their own future and defying the terrorist forces," Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Mr Iyad Allawi said while casting his vote in the US-controlled Green Zone.
"If the results are confirmed - and the only reason to be cautious is the lack of a complete picture - then it is very good news. But the challenge is for the results to be accepted by the Sunni minority," the UN's electoral adviser in Iraq, Mr Carlos Valenzuela, said.
The aim of the election is to create a 275-member national assembly which will draw up a new constitution. Ballots also took place for district governments, and for a Kurdish regional assembly.
In Baghdad, where much of yesterday's violence was concentrated, voters walked to polling stations in their thousands as explosions echoed around the city. Police banned all vehicle traffic, and sealed off dozens of streets around stations with barbed wire.
The worst attack in Baghdad was when a man with explosives strapped to his body killed six people in a polling station queue. Another bomber killed four people at a voting centre in the Sadr City slums, a Shia stronghold. A suicide bomb also killed five people in a bus carrying voters south of Baghdad.
The Iraqi wing of al-Qaeda, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for the attacks. It had vowing to kill any "infidel" who voted.
The enthusiasm for the voting was evident. Mr Safar Hussein (40), a construction worker, said he had been the first to vote with his family. "I didn't sleep all night. I just sat watching television waiting for the moment when I could go to vote. It's been like waiting for a child to be born," said Mr Hussein, who stood on a nearby Baghdad street handing out sweets to voters.
In both the Kurdish-controlled north and Shia south, where there has been relatively little violence, voters turned out in force.
"We are here to give our children a better chance than we had," explained Mr Jemal Hama Amin in Halabja, in the Kurdish north of the country. "That is worth being patient for."
Even in Kirkuk, specifically singled out as a target last week by the al-Zarqawi group, attacks were few - a rocket killed one, while two were injured in a shoot-out on one of the city's bridges.
"To be frank, I am surprised how well things have gone," said Lieut-Col Serhat Qadir, a security officer in the Kirkuk governorate.
In Fallujah, a former insurgent stronghold stormed by US troops in November, dozens of families also cast their vote.
However, in some Sunni-dominated towns many polling stations were deserted, reflecting voters' fears and a call by most mainstream Sunni political parties to boycott the elections.
Iraqi officials have expressed concern that without Sunni participation the new government will lack legitimacy and may foster division between Iraq's religious and ethnic communities.
The United Iraqi Alliance, a list of candidates drawn from leading Shia parties and expected to dominate at the polls, has offered to include Sunni representatives in the new government. Preliminary results are not expected for several days as votes from outlying parts are counted.
An RAF Hercules transport plane crashed north of Baghdad yesterday afternoon killing at least nine British service personnel, it was reported last night.
The plane was believed to have been en route from Baghdad to Balad, where there is a US base. Sources said the death toll could rise to 15.