Class graduates from US university, once Saddam’s palace

The American University of Baghdad celebrated the graduation of its first cohort of students Saturday at a campus that was once a palace built by Saddam Hussein, writes Qassim Abdul-Zahra for The Associated Press.

Officials said they hope the graduation will mark the beginning of a new era in higher education in Iraq rooted in modernity, openness and international academic standards.

The university was inaugurated in 2021 on the site of the al-Faw Palace, built on an island in the middle of an artificial lake by Saddam in the 1990s to mark the retaking of the peninsula of the same name during the war. After the U.S.-led invasion that unseated Saddam in 2003, it was used as a US coalition military headquarters called Camp Victory. It was later developed into an American-style university with a core liberal arts programme through funding by influential Iraqi business owner Saadi Saihood.
Full report on the AP News site