The Embassy of the United States of America in Baghdad is the diplomatic mission of the United States of America in the Republic of Iraq. Ambassador Alina Romanowski is currently the Chief of Mission. At , it is the largest embassy in the world; it is nearly as large as Vatican City. The embassy complex is about five times the size of the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan, which is the second-largest U.S. diplomatic mission abroad, as well as over ten times the size of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, which is the third-largest U.S. diplomatic mission abroad. The embassy opened in January 2009 following a series of construction delays. It replaced the previous embassy, which opened July 1, 2004 in Baghdad's Green Zone in a former Palace of Saddam Hussein. The embassy complex cost $750 million to build and reached a peak staffing of 16,000 employees and contractors in 2012. The U.S. thereafter embarked on a major personnel reduction that reduced the total staffing to 11,500 in January 2013 and to 5,500 by 2014. Total headcount was reduced to 486 by late 2019 and 349 by mid-2020. On 31 December 2019, the embassy was attacked by supporters of Popular Mobilization Forces militia in response to airstrikes in Iraq and Syria conducted by United States Air Force the previous Sunday. The embassy was also repeatedly attacked by Iranian-aligned Iraqi Shiite militias and Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps following President Trump's order for a drone strike assassination against Qasem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in Baghdad Airport on 3 January 2020. History 1930–1967: Origins The United States established diplomatic relations with Iraq in 1930 and opened a legation in Baghdad. The legation was upgraded to an embassy in 1946. A new building was designed by Josep Lluís Sert in 1955 and completed in 1957, with its main priority on keeping the building cool rather than to ensure security. 1967–2003: Turbulent relations This building remained the embassy until the Six-Day War of 1967, when many Arab countries broke off diplomatic relations with the United States. In 1972, the embassy became the U.S. Interests Section (USINT) of the Belgian Embassy to Iraq, as Belgium was the protecting power for the United States presence in Iraq. USINT, however, was not housed in the building the Embassy had occupied prior to 1967, as that building had been taken over and made into the Iraqi Ministry of