US opens 104-acre embassy in Iraq

President Jalal Talabani of Iraq (second from right) stood with US dignitaries at the unveiling of the US Embassy in Baghdad. (Eric Brooks/ AFP/ Getty Images)

BAGHDAD - The United States opened its largest embassy ever yesterday, a fortress-like compound in the heart of the Green Zone - and the most visible sign of what US officials call a new chapter in relations between America and a more sovereign Iraq.

US Marines raised the American flag over the adobe-colored buildings, which sit on a 104-acre site and have space for 1,000 employees - more than 10 times the size of any other US Embassy in the world.

"Iraq is in a new era and so is the Iraqi-US relationship," Ambassador Ryan Crocker proclaimed.

In perhaps an unintended sign of the new relationship, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki did not attend yesterday's ceremony because he was traveling in Iran, a country the United States has accused of aiding and arming Iraqi militants.

Explaining the opening of such a large embassy three years before the United States is to finish withdrawal of its 146,000 troops from Iraq, Crocker told the Associated Press that it is vital for the United States to remain involved in nonmilitary ways.

ASSOCIATED PRESS