American hurt in embassy attack

One American was injured in a mortar attack today on a building housing offices of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, an embassy spokesman said.

The mortar round hit the roof of one of Saddam Hussein’s former palaces inside Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy said.

A grey plume of smoke could be seen rising from the multi-storied building, topped by a green dome, after the blast. Dozens of U.S. diplomats work in the building alongside officials of the US-led military coalition.

US Ambassador John Negroponte, who works out of the nearby chancellery, was not in Baghdad at the time, the spokesman said.