Playing the waiting game as bombs drop on Iraq.

As the coalition forces dropped the first bombs in the 2003 Iraqi War, aid agencies and United Nations (UN) teams were working around the clock in bordering countries to prepare for a predicted influx of refugees. Although estimates of the size of the likely population movements vary widely, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Activities estimates that as the war escalates between 600,000 and 1.1 million people may flee the country to neighboring Iran, Turkey, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. The UN also warned of a potential humanitarian crisis in Iraq's second city, Basra. Secretary general Kofi Annan called for urgent measures to help the 1.5 million residents of Basra who were facing the threat of disease from a lack of clean water. A UN official in Amman, Jordan, said many people were now taking water from the Shatt-al-Arab river where sewage was dumped, with the result that diarrhea was likely and children were seriously at risk.