Flanked by patrol boats and assault helicopters, the British supply ship, Sir Galahad, docked at the hard-won port of Umm Qasr yesterday, loaded with the first military shipment of relief aid for Iraqi civilians.
Just ahead of it was the British mine-detecting ship, HMS Sandown, clearing a route. The security escort only underscored the lingering risks of navigating the Khor Abdallah waterway, where US and British minesweeping teams had found and detonated six potential mines in the previous 36 hours.
"It's very likely Saddam Hussein would mine these waters to prevent coalition forces from entering," said Commander Ian Hall of the US Navy, who co-ordinates four American mine-hunter ships that have been methodically sweeping the channel together with the British navy.
Hall said his teams could not confirm whether the objects recently detonated were newly laid mines or leftover ordnance from earlier Iraqi wars, but said the locations of several were highly suspicious.
Sir Galahad's precious cargo - 100 tons of water and 150 tons of rice, lentils, cooking oil, tomato paste, chick peas, sugar, powdered milk and tea stacked from floor to ceiling in the ship's hold - is the first massive shipment of aid to reach Iraq. Medical supplies, blankets and ration packs also are aboard.
Once docked, the ship was quickly unloaded by forklifts and cranes. The bulk of the aid was donated by Britain, and military officials will soon enter Iraqi villages to assess relief needs.
Non-governmental aid groups are expected to arrive in the region within three weeks to help with the distribution, said Brig Shaun Cowlam of the British forces.
Until then, coalition forces will do the job, but he could not say when the first supplies would reach the people.
Also yesterday, two trucks of Kuwaiti aid arrived in the border town of Safwan. As during aid distribution on Wednesday, there was a near-riot when about 500 people engulfed the trucks, ripped open the cargo doors and emptied the trucks of bottled water, cheese and other food in 10 to 15 minutes.
A small group of coalition soldiers did not even try to impose order on the people, who have been suffering from severe shortages of food and water and have been drinking muddy water out of ditches and puddles.
Meanwhile, a seven-truck convoy left Amman, the Jordanian capital, for Baghdad loaded with medical supplies.
The UN World Food Programme appealed today for $830 million to help feed Iraqis for six months, part of what could be the biggest humanitarian operation in history. The United Nations is asking for a total of $1.4 billion.