In pictures: Iraq election day

Voters in Iraq have been casting their ballots in the second parliamentary elections since Saddam Hussein was ousted in 2003.

Iraqi security forces patrol the streets as voters walk to polling stations in Ramadi, 7 March 2010

Troops have been deployed in massive numbers in an effort to prevent attackers from disrupting the election.

Iraqi woman votes in Baghdad - 7 March 2010

But violence erupted almost immediately after polling stations opened. Militants had threatened to disrupt the poll distributing leaflets warning voters not to turn out.

Residents gather at the scene of a blast which destroyed a building in northern Baghdad, 7 March 2010

Dozens of mortars were fired in Baghdad where two apartment blocks collapsed. There were also roadside bomb blasts and mortar attacks in several other cities.

Voters queue as an Iraqi policeman frisks a man at the entrance to a polling centre in Basra, 7 March 2010

Security has been intense, with around 500,000 personnel deployed to prevent attacks. Even so, in Falluja, two bomb blasts were reported near a polling station.

US soldiers at a base in Mosul, north of Baghdad - 7 March 2010

US soldiers were on standby to help Iraqi security forces but appeared to have had a quiet day.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki casts his vote in Baghdad

Many voters remained defiant, and Iraq's Prime Minster Nouri al-Maliki told the BBC the violence should not deter people from exercising their democratic right at the polls.

Prospective voters search for their names on registration lists to vote in the parliamentary elections in Baghdad, 7 March 2010

Some 19 million Iraqis were eligible to elect 325 members of parliament. Polls closed at 1700 (1400 GMT) except to allow people already in line to vote. A steady turnout was reported in a number of different cities.