Food aid arrives in Iraq but residents out of reach

Umm Qasr, Iraq ? Tons of desperately needed food and water reached this port city escorted by attack helicopters and a minesweeping ship, but the people it could benefit most — 1.3 million residents of nearby Basra — remained under siege Friday and under fire from Iraqi fighters.

Iraq’s second-largest city, just 20 miles north of the port where a British supply ship delivered water, rice, powdered milk and other humanitarian aid, was encircled by British forces.

When about 1,000 residents tried to flee Basra to find food on Friday, Iraqi paramilitary forces fired on them with mortars and machine guns, British military officials and witnesses said.

Women and children were targeted as they ran across a bridge leading out of the west side of Basra, according to a British pool report. Wounded civilians were taken to a British regimental aid facility, where the sobbing husband of one slightly injured woman offered repeated thanks, the report said.

Before the mortar and machine-gun fire started, more than 1,000 other Iraqis had escaped the city via the bridge. They greeted British forces with pleas for food and water, and with cries of “Down with Saddam,” the pool report said.

“Here perhaps are the first pieces of evidence of Iraqi people trying to break free,” said Col. Chris Vernon, a British military spokesman. “And clearly the militias don’t want that. They want to keep their population in there, and they fired on them to force them back in.”

Britain’s 7th Armored Brigade opted to withhold fire during the attack, fearful that they might hit civilians, said Lt. Cmdr. Emma Thomas, spokeswoman for British forces in the Persian Gulf.

Inside Basra, electricity and water supplies remain cut off. Many residents have been forced to drink contaminated water, raising the possibility of widespread cholera and diarrhea, and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called for “urgent measures” to prevent a disaster.

British forces have ringed Basra in an effort to eradicate units loyal to Saddam Hussein while clearing a path for the aid. Earlier this week, British officials reported that some civilians in Basra had turned on the Iraqi forces.

The desperate need for aid was demonstrated in the southern Iraq border town of Safwan, where two trucks carrying aid from Kuwait were quickly overrun Friday in a near riot.

¢ Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld issued a stern warning to Syria to stop sending military equipment to Iraqi forces, saying such shipments have included night-vision goggles.

¢ The biggest bombs dropped on Baghdad so far — two 4,700-pound bunker busters — struck a communications tower in an intense U.S. bombardment.

¢ Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf said the overnight airstrikes had killed seven people in Baghdad and wounded 92. The Arab television network Al-Jazeera reported eight people were killed at Baath party headquarters in bombing Friday afternoon.

¢ Iraqi paramilitary forces in Basra fired mortars and machine guns on 1,000 Iraqi civilians trying to leave the besieged city, forcing many to retreat, British military officials and witnesses said. An initial group of about 1,000 fled the city safely.

¢ The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a resolution to restart a U.N. humanitarian food program for Iraq once the U.S.-led war winds down.

¢ Iraqi Kurds are preparing camps to hold as many as 500,000 people fleeing Saddam Hussein’s territory, but face severe shortages of tents and other equipment, officials said.

¢ Flanked by patrol boats and assault helicopters, the British supply ship Sir Galahad docked at the hard-won port of Umm Qasr, loaded with the first military shipment of relief aid for Iraqi citizens.

¢ Allies say they have taken more than 4,000 prisoners of war. But U.S. commanders said they were worried that some Iraqi soldiers who had been allowed to return to their homes in Basra are being forced back into service by paramilitary units loyal to Saddam.

¢ Pentagon officials said about 90,000 U.S. troops were in Iraq, with 100,000 to 120,000 more on the way.