Ted Cruz admitted on Tuesday that his presidential campaign spread a false rumor, just hours before Monday's Iowa caucuses began, that conservative rival Ben Carson was dropping pout of the presidential race.

Carson finished a distant fourth in the nation's first nominating contest, and observers at two caucus precincts told DailyMail.com that he lost supporters to the Cruz camp when Republicans speaking on behalf of Cruz said Carson was suspending his campaign.

It turned out not to be true, however, and Carson himself complained Tuesday about 'shameless tactics and dirty political plays' that pushed Cruz to victory on the strength of political sabotage.

Cruz won the caucuses by a total of 6,239 votes over Donald Trump, less than four Republicans in each of the state's 1,681 precincts – representing the number Cruz's forces would have had to 'flip' at each caucus location in order to overcome what had been a strong Trump polling lead going into Monday night.

Overall, Cruz captured 27.6 per cent of the Iowa GOP vote. Trump took 24.3 per cent.

Rubio was a surprisingly strong third, at 23.1 per cent. Carson took just 9.3 per cent.

CONTRITE: Sen. Ted Cruz apologized to Dr. Ben Carson on Tuesday for a whisper campaign which said falsely as Iowans caucused Monday night that the retired surgeon was dropping out of the presidential race

DIRTY TRICKS: Ben Carson's team has accused Ted Cruz's campaign of dirty tricks during the Iowa caucuses claiming they told supporters their opponent was dropping out of the race

'SHAMELESS': Carson finished in fourth place in the Iowa caucus, well behind the top three finishers of the night – Ted Cruz (pictured), Marco Rubio and Donald Trump – but also well ahead of the rest of the field

A Trump spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment about how the scheme affected Monday night's outcome.

Carson had accused Cruz's workers in a statement of 'tweeting, texting and telling precinct captains to announce that I had suspended my campaign – in some cases asking caucus goers to change their votes.'

A pair of emails sent to Iowa Cruz backers by the campaign's digital marketing specialist Spence Rogers just before and after caucus time were titled 'Carson Likely to Drop Out' and 'CNN Reporting Ben Carson Will Stop Campaigning After Iowa.'

'Please inform any Carson caucus goers of this news and urge them to caucus for Ted Cruz,' the first message read.

'CNN is reporting that Ben Carson will stop campaigning after Iowa,' the second said.

'Make sure to tell all of your peers at the caucus supporting Carson that they should coalesce around the true conservative who will be in the race for the long haul: TED CRUZ!'

Cruz himself told Boston radio host Jeff Kuhner Tuesday on WRKO AM-680 that his political staff in fact reacted to a false report from a CNN journalist and never bothered to correct the record once Carson quelled the rumors personally.

'Yesterday when CNN reported and put up a post that Carson was not continuing on to New Hampshire, was not continuing on to South Carolina, but instead was flying home to Florida, our political team forwarded that story to our supporters,' Cruz said.

HATCHET MAN: Rep. Steve King of Iowa, a major Cruz backer, tweeted before the caucuses were underway at 5:19 p.m. CST that 'Carson looks like he's out'

This tweet from a CNN reporter, sent at 6:43 pm Iowa time, set off a frenzy in Republican circles and led Cruz's staff to spread the (incorrect) word that Ben Carson was quitting the White House race

'What the team didn't do is, subsequently the Carson campaign put out a statement clarifying that he was not suspending his campaign. And the team did not forward that statement to the supporters as well.'

'That was a mistake,' he said. 'It was a mistake for us not to have forwarded the second statement as well, and I apologize to Ben for our not forwarding that second statement.'

Carson has accepted the apology, his spokeswoman Deana Bass told DailyMail.com.

He told Fox News Channel host Bill O'Reilly on Tuesday that he 'talked to Ted Cruz earlier today and he says that he didn’t know anything about what the campaign did in terms of contacting precincts, telling people that I was dropping out, that a vote for me was a wasted vote.'

'I have to accept his word that he didn’t know,' Carson said, 'cause he said if he had known he would have not agreed with such a thing.'

But the retired doctor insisted that Cruz needs to clean up his campaign, and compared it to the Obama White House.

'A culture exists within the Cruz camp that would allow people to take advantage of a situation like this in a very dishonest way,' he said.

'Isn’t this the same thing we see with the Obama administration, the IRS scandal – no responsibility. Let’s see what in fact the Cruz campaign will do about those individuals who inappropriately disseminated this information knowing that the caucuses were not over – they were awfully anxious to get it out there weren’t they?'

This message from Cruz digital marketing expert Spence Rogers to the senator's supporters in Iowa is one way caucus-goers got the false information that Carson was about to suspend his campaign

The Cruz campaign's message that Carson supporters should jump aboard the Ted express got significant oxygen from Iowa Rep. Steve King, a tea party right-winger who endorsed the Texas senator last month.

'Skipping NH & SC is the equivalent of suspending,' King tweeted more than two hours before caucusing started. 'Too bad this information won't get to all caucus goers.

'Carson looks like he is out,' he wrote in a second tweet. 'Iowans need to know before they vote. Most will go to Cruz, I hope.'

The rumor appears to have started with a tweet from CNN reporter Chris Moody, who wrote that 'Carson won't go to NH/SC, but instead will head home to Florida for some R&R. He'll be in DC Thursday for the National Prayer Breakfast.'

Moody later clarified: 'Ben Carson's campaign tells me he plans to stay in the race beyond Iowa no matter what the results are tonight.'

But the Cruz camp never called off the dogs.

'Last night, shameless tactics and dirty political plays defined the Iowa caucuses,' Carson said Tuesday afternoon in an email to supporters. 'There is no place for this kind of unethical behavior in our American political culture, and it only intensifies my desire to work extremely hard to break down the ugliness in this system.'

Carson spokeswoman Deana Bass told DailyMail.com that 'the fact that the Cruz campaign received Dr. Carson's statement and chose not correct their false statements says it all.'

POLITICS AS USUAL: Carson claimed his opponent's campaign sent emails and texts to their supporters urging them to spread incorrect rumors he had dropped out of the race

CAUCUS NIGHT DENIALS: Rick Tyler, campaign spokesman for Ted Cruz (above) denied the claims made by Ben Carson's team

'Regardless of what his opponents do, Dr. Carson will continue to run a campaign of integrity. From day one he has behaved like a statesman, not a politician. The American people deserve nothing less.'

He claimed his opponent's campaign sent emails to their supporters urging them to spread incorrect rumors he had dropped out of the race, according to Time.

He told reporters: 'That is really quite a dirty trick. That’s the very kind of thing that irritated me enough to get into this quagmire.'

According to Time, his campaign manager Ed Brookover added: 'To have campaigns come out and send emails to their caucus speakers suggesting that Dr Carson was doing anything but moving forward after tonight is the lowest of low in American politics.'

MSNBC reports Carson's Iowa State Director Ryan Rhodes as saying: 'It was happening all over. One of the precincts Candy (Carson, the candidate’s wife) walked into, she had to correct the record. She actually walked in, in Ankeny, and gave a speech about no, he’s still in the race and that’s a lie.'

Cruz campaign spokesman Rick Tyler denied the claims, but told MSNBC some supporters were alerted of Carson's plan to head to Florida after the Iowa caucuses rather than for further campaigning elsewhere.

Carson told reporters on Monday that he would be leaving Iowa early so he could go to Florida and get some clean clothes.

His communications director Larry Ross then confirmed this in a statement released to the media, which read; 'After spending 18 consecutive days on the campaign trail, Dr. Carson needs to go home and get a fresh set of clothes.'