CAMPAIGNING for the first post-Saddam Hussein elections got under way in Iraq yesterday amid more bloodshed, as the ousted president met his family-appointed lawyers for the first time since his capture a year ago.

Since the images of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison first appeared, several Iraqi men have spoken out about their ordeals at US-run detention centres. Women, however, have been silent.

Iraq’s US-led administration will release 506 prisoners from detention camps in a show of good will, while simultaneously offering bounties for 30 more Iraqis wanted in the anti-American insurgency, the top US official in Iraq said today.