As-Salam Palace
The as-Salam Palace, previously a home of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, is now an Iraqi military base.
History
Al-Salam Palace was taken over by coalition forces during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The palace was significantly damaged duringTemplate:March 2003 the "Shock and Awe" campaign, when it sustained several airstrike attacks. It is headquarters for the Joint Area Support Group. It has been known to coalition forces as "Camp Prosperity" and "Forward Operating Base Prosperity." The Mayor Cell was run by LTC Skon. SGT Feller was in charge of grounds with 28 Iraqi citizens working for him.
Layout and amenities
The palace has 200 rooms with approximately 1,000,000 square feet (93,000 m2) floor space. There are six floors, three of which are usable (others serve as 'false floors'); two large ball rooms. The palace is internally lined with marble floors with hundreds of thousands of hand-cut pieces, granite walls, and ceilings that also have hundreds of thousands of hand-carved and inlaid hand-painted flowers.
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