STORY: This rusting yacht belonged to Saddam Hussein

Location: Basra, Iraq

Now, it has become a picnic spot for local Iraqi fishermen

[Hussein Sabahi, Fisherman]

"This yacht, when it was owned by the former president, no one could come close to it at all. We were dreaming of seeing it. And now those days are over. The world has changed and now it's capsized."

The 396-foot 'al-Mansur' yacht was built in the 1980s

It served as a symbol of Saddam's wealth and power, even though he never boarded it

The yacht was targeted by U.S.-led forces during the invasion in 2003

and was later capsized in the Shatt al-Arab waterway

In the turmoil that followed Saddam’s downfall, the yacht was stripped bare and looted

"We use it as a place to rest, hook our things to it and we sometimes submerge our fishing cages and some people fish from the top of the ship. Other people come to take photos. It would be better if they could turn it into a museum, or they should just move it out of here and keep it as state property."