DHAKA: Texas Senator Ted Cruz has won the Iowa Republican caucuses, the first vote of the US 2016 presidential election.

‘Tonight is a victory for courageous conservatives,’ he declared, to great applause, as he railed against Washington, lobbyists and the media, reports the BBC.

He took 28% of the Republican vote, beating his rival, the once frontrunner Donald Trump, and Marco Rubio.

Votes in the Democratic race are still being counted, and some US media have declared it a dead-heat.

With 95% of results confirmed, Hillary Clinton clung to the narrowest of leads over Bernie Sanders and told supporters she was ‘breathing a sigh of relief’.

The former secretary of state and first lady stopped short of declaring victory, and her rival, a 74-year-old senator from Vermont said it was a ‘virtual tie’.

No such ambiguity from Republican victor Cruz, whose triumph was reward for the months he spent criss-crossing the state to woo its influential conservative and evangelical leaders.

As country music blared across the loud speaker at his Des Moines rally, the 45-year-old fiery conservative, who has been a thorn in the side of his party, relished his victory.

BDST: 1234 HRS, FEB 02, 2016
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