BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Polls opened early Sunday in Iraq's first free elections in a half-century.
At polling stations across the country, voters began filtering into the polling stations, as poll workers checked their identifications.
Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawer was one of the first set to cast his vote at the convention center serving as election headquarters in the heavily fortified Green Zone.
By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Voters trickled into polling stations under tight security Sunday in Iraq, casting ballots despite insurgents who promised to sabotage the country's first free election in a half-century.
Poll workers checked identifications, and Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawer was one of the first to vote at election headquarters in the heavily fortified Green Zone, calling the election his country's first step "toward joining the free world."
As poll workers watched, he marked two ballots and then dropped them into boxes. A poll worker handed him an Iraqi flag as he left.
"I'm very proud and happy this morning," al-Yawher told reporters. "I congratulate all the Iraqi people and call them to vote for Iraq."
Even before voting began, mortar fire boomed across Baghdad as the world awaited the vote that will echo from militant Islamic Web sites in the Mideast to the halls of the White House. Insurgents rocketed the U.S. Embassy late Saturday in Baghdad, killing two Americans. Seven people were arrested in the attack.