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(Umm Qasr, Iraq-AP) -- An Army officer in charge of getting food and water to southern Iraq is reporting "significant progress."
Colonel David Blackledge says residents of Iraq's southern city of Umm Qasar (oom-KAH'-sur) now are getting plentiful supplies of drinkable water.
The commander of a civil affairs unit says U-S and British forces have begun the distribution effort, assisted by local Iraqis.
Blackledge says residents now are getting all the water they need -- thanks to a pipeline brought to the Iraqi border by the government of Kuwait. He says pipeline water goes into tankers that distribute it in southern Iraq.
Soon, he expects that water to start heading into Basra.
Today, he says, Basra also got medical supplies from the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Blackledge adds more humanitarian workers will be arriving in Iraq -- now that the security team for the United Nations has given the green light for the work.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
