Voter turnout Sunday in Iraq was as high as 70 percent by some estimates—more than the 57 percent predicted by U.S. officials.

Entire families arrived together at Iraqi polling stations, wearing their finest clothes.

In Baghdad, some streets were packed with voters, walking
shoulder-to-shoulder.

Even the elderly made their way: one woman
was pushed along in a wooden cart, while a man carried a disabled
80-year-old on his back.

They braved suicide bombers, mortar attacks and gunfire to vote
in their country's first free election in nearly 50 years.

Iraqis waited in long lines and entered polling stations under loops of
razor wire, beneath the watchful eyes of rooftop sharpshooters.

“we are not scared and we are not cowards,” said one man who was walking to the polls with his wife.

Elsewhere in Baghdad, a U.S. observer described how voters had to
walk past the remains of a suicide bomber.

By day's end, 44 people had died in attacks across the country,
including nine bombers.

President Bush congratulated the Iraqi people on today's election, and praised their bravery.

He said Iraqis have "refused to be intimidated by thugs and assassins."

"The Iraqi people themselves made this election a resounding success," the President said in a statement released Sunday.

"Brave patriots stepped forward as candidates,” he said, while others volunteered to work at polls and more than 100,000 Iraqi troops guarded voting sites.

“By participating in free elections, the Iraqi people have firmly
rejected the anti-democratic ideology of the terrorists, “ Mr. Bush said.