A U.S. aircraft carrier group was headed for Indonesia's tsunami-hit Aceh province on Thursday and several other U.S. military ships were on course to the Bay of Bengal to help with relief operations, officials said. The carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and four other vessels will be stationed off Aceh on the northern tip of Sumatra island where the death toll from Sunday's earthquake and tsunami has risen past 47,000. Another group of seven U.S. military ships, including a helicopter carrier, steamed for the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean. Lieutenant General James T. Conway, joint chiefs of staff director of operations, told a briefing in Washington late on Wednesday the Lincoln group had 12 helicopters on board, "which we find extremely valuable in these types of scenarios". Conway, according to a transcript given to Reuters by the U.S. embassy in Jakarta, said a U.S. assessment team was expected in Aceh on Thursday. Teams had already been dispatched to Thailand and Sri Lanka, also hard hit by the tsunami that has killed more than 87,000 people across the region. He said the Lincoln carrier strike group had been in Hong Kong when the tsunami struck. It was diverted to the Gulf of Thailand and is now making its way to the Malacca Strait. The ships associated with the carrier group are expected to take position off the island of Sumatra, Conway said. He did not say exactly when the ships would arrive. A U.S. defense department official in Jakarta confirmed the carrier fleet was on its way.
