BAGHDAD - Residents of Iraq’s capital turn out for the election but voting is also marred by a spate of mortar and suicide attacks, although many bombers fail to reach the interior of polling stations.

SOME came on crutches, others walked for miles then struggled to read the ballot, but across most of Iraq millions turned out to vote yesterday, defying insurgent threats of a bloodbath.

Two suicide bombers have killed around 10 people outside the offices of a Kurdish political party in northern Iraq.

HUGE crowds of ecstatic Shi’ites surged through the holy city of Kerbala yesterday, ending a pilgrimage that signalled to Washington they will be a powerful force in the new Iraq.

US SOLDIERS began securing oilfields and the airport in the key northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk yesterday as lawlessness and tensions between ethnic groups appeared to be on the rise, and Turkey voiced its concerns about a Kurdish nation on its borders.

Kurds in the northern town of Arbil have gathered to cheer and wave, holding aloft pictures of their Kurdish leader, as scenes of defiance spread throughout Iraq.