Bombs wreck Saddam's yacht

Rusting and blackened, Saddam Hussein's presidential yacht languishes in Basra docks, a symbol of his smashed power. One of the most garish examples of the dictator's wealth, the Al Mansour was attacked by bombers in the port of Basra early in the war and is now adrift and partially submerged.

The once sumptuously decorated interior lies in ruins, the huge glass-domed atrium at its centre and its helipad obliterated. Fittings of marble, exotic woods, silver and gold lie in fragments, at the mercy of any looters able to reach the stricken vessel by boat.

State-of-the-art electronics, including anti-bugging devices and one of the first satellite phone systems installed in a non-military vessel, have been reduced to twisted metal and tangled wires. Lifeboats hang precariously from the side, dark streaks from a bomb blast decorate its bow and it lists drunkenly. Its galley is a mass of smashed equipment and utensils.

Charred furniture, blackened walls and a thick layer of ash attest to the fire which swept through the vessel when the bombs hit. The Al Mansour - the largest ship in the Iraqi navy, despite having no military value - resembled a cross-Channel ferry rather than a private yacht. Nearly 400 feet long, with eight decks, it was large enough to entertain 200 guests to dinner and had a secret emergency escape route from Saddam's quarters.

Finnish shipbuilders delivered the 7,359-ton vessel in 1982. Built to Saddam's personal specifications, it had only five cabins but a huge reception area.

A crew member on HMS Chatham, one of the British ships patrolling the Shatt al Arab river which connects Basra to the Gulf, said: "The destruction of the Al Mansour is a great loss to Loyd Grossman's Through The Keyhole."

The yacht is proof that even with UN sanctions in force, Saddam actually increased his huge fortune by plundering the country's treasury and through a smuggling operation masterminded by his son Uday. By 1999 he had joined the club of the world's 100 wealthiest people.

Also destroyed in the strike on the Al Mansour were almost the entire remnants of the Iraqi navy. During the first Gulf war, coalition naval forces virtually wiped out the country's navy, destroying more than 100 vessels.