BAGHDAD (AP) - The U.S. military announced Sunday the deaths of two soldiers, pushing the number of Americans who have died in the Iraq war to the grim milestone of at least 3,000. On the final day of an exceedingly bloody year, Saddam Hussein was also buried in the town where he was born.

The White House said the president mourned each death but would not issue a statement in reaction to the 3,000th in a war now 46 months old.

Despite the momentous developments in a deeply troubled Iraq, bombers and assassins appeared to have taken the day off at the close of a brutal year when the country seemed near to unraveling along its sectarian seams.

Police reported finding 12 bodies dumped in Baghdad Sunday as well as 12 other violent deaths nationwide, both relatively low numbers by recent standards.

One day after Saddam was hanged, his body was interred in a special compound he built in Ouja and designed for use in mourning ceremonies by the people of the town where he was born 69 years and eight months before.

Those who saw the ceremony said the building was decorated in a Moroccan motif with teak wood walls.

The domed burial chamber was about 20 feet tall and hung with a green chandelier. Incense perfumed the burial location where the raised grave covering was about 6 inches above floor level.

Ouja is a few miles south of Tikrit, the Tigris River city that is capital of Salahuddin province, 80 miles north of Baghdad.

It was a major power base for the former leader who brutally ruled Iraq for nearly a quarter century.

Officials in Tikrit said the body was transferred by American helicopter to the U.S. military base at Tikrit from Baghdad, where Saddam dropped through the gallows floor and died shortly before dawn on Saturday.

At Saddam