Saddam's palace may be U.S. Embassy

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.S. bombs never hit Saddam Hussein's grandiose presidential palace in Baghdad, making its ample meeting rooms and vast conference tables an ideal headquarters for U.S.-led occupation authorities after the war.

Now the building -- the physical seat and biggest symbol of Saddam's 23-year dictatorship -- is the likely site for the next U.S. Embassy in Iraq, U.S. officials in Washington and Iraq said this week.

A State Department official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the palace is among several locations under consideration for the embassy, where the U.S. government's official representative will be based after power is handed over to an Iraqi government by July 1.

Critics say the move will show the world that the U.S. intends to remain the true power in Iraq.

If the building does become the U.S. Embassy, analysts say its negative symbolism as the previous seat of Iraq's dictatorship will be reinforced when U.S. representatives move in. The choice could suggest to Iraqis that the United States will remain the true power in Iraq, some said.

Also in Iraq

Three suicide bombers in a furniture truck blew themselves up at the gates of a U.S. Army base Thursday, killing one soldier and wounding 14. It was the third suicide attack on American troops in Iraq this week.

Three wounded soldiers were evacuated from the headquarters of the 82nd Airborne Division west of Baghdad to a combat hospital and the other 11 wounded were treated and returned to duty, the U.S. military reported.

There were no U.S. fatalities in the previous two suicide attacks this week.

Early Friday, three loud explosions boomed in the "Green Zone," the compound housing the headquarters of the U.S.-led coalition, in central Baghdad.

Also, three Iraqis were killed in the truck that exploded Thursday at Champion Base in Ramadi, 60 miles west of Baghdad.

The military reported Thursday one U.S. soldier drowned and another was missing after a patrol boat accident on the Tigris River in Baghdad.

The incident occurred Wednesday, and the drowned soldier from the Army's 1st Armored Division was found Thursday morning, the statement said.

Also Thursday, Ghazi al-Talabani, director of the Northern Field Protection Force, which guards oil pipelines in northern Iraq, said an explosion set a pipeline ablaze, forcing officials to halt the flow.

He said the pipeline links the Beiji refinery in northern Iraq with the al-Doura refinery near Baghdad.