Mansour’s yacht (Archyde.com)
An overturned yacht covered with rust in a river in southern Iraq. This is how the most expensive boats owned by former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein have become, nearly two decades following the end of his rule of the country with an iron fist.
Al-Mansour’s 121-meter yacht, which was considered a symbol of Saddam’s wealth and power when it was built in the 1980s, has become a picnic destination for fishermen who previously would not dare approach it.
Today, it is also a destination for onlookers and the curious who clamber over the wreckage for a picnic and a cup of tea.
Al-Mansur was one of three yachts owned by Saddam, which might accommodate up to 200 guests and was equipped with a helipad.
“I do not believe”
In the context, said fisherman Hussein Sabahi, who seeks some comfort and enjoyment with a cup of tea on the wreck of the yacht at the end of a long day on the river, “When it was owned by the former president, no one would approach it.”
He also added, “I do not believe that this was the property of Saddam and now I am the one who moves around him,” according to what was reported by Archyde.com
Mansour’s yacht (Archyde.com)
Saddam had issued orders that the yacht, which he never boarded, leave its mooring in the city of Umm Qasr for Basra for protection a few weeks following the start of the American invasion on March 20, 2003.
overturned in the Shatt al-Arab
But it was targeted by US-led forces and later capsized in the Shatt al-Arab waterway, where it began to wear out and rust.
In the turmoil that followed Saddam’s fall, the yacht was stripped of its contents and looted, with everything from chandeliers and furniture to even the metal hull dismantled.
Mansour’s yacht (Archyde.com)
The other yacht was converted into a hotel in Basra.
Although some Iraqis say that the wreckage of al-Mansur should have been preserved and recovered, successive governments have not allocated funds for this.
Precious jewel
While the sea captain in the Iraqi Ministry of Transport, Zahi Musa, confirmed that “this yacht is like a precious jewel, like a rare masterpiece that you keep at home.” “We are sad because it looks like this,” he added.
It is noteworthy that Saddam and his family, according to some US estimates in 2003, illegally collected funds amounting to 40 billion dollars.
