Iraq and UN to restore historic marshlands drained by Saddam Hussain

Amman, Jordan: Iraq and the United Nations have agreed to restore historic marshlands drained by Saddam Hussain to hunt down Shiite rebels.

Iraq and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization have signed the memorandum of understanding in the Jordanian capital, Amman, to discuss the project.

The $47 million effort will remove dikes and canals that Saddam built so that water can flow back into the area and improve living standards of inhabitants in the area.

Much of the marshlands, believed by some scholars to have been the biblical Garden of Eden, turned into an arid salt bed after Saddam drained them.

He did so after inhabitants supported Shiites who rebelled against his forces just after the 1991 Gulf War.