It has already started. A Kuwaiti gunboat fired on a large fleet of dhows who were thought to be laying mines. This from The Times.

                   First shots fired at sea as allied
                   battle plan unfolds
                   By David Sharrock in Kuwait and Michael Evans, Defence Editor


                   THE first shots of the war have been fired, killing at least one
                   Iraqi during a suspected operation to mine the waters off
                   Kuwait. But that opening skirmish is about to be dwarfed by
                   the most formidable military assault in modern warfare:
                   250,000 British and American troops — backed by more than
                   1,000 aircraft, 400 tanks and a 110-strong armada — are
                   poised to unleash their awesome power on Saddam Hussein's
                   Iraq the moment the order is given.

                   The first clash occurred in the mouth of the Khawr al-Zubayr
                   river, a few miles south of the port of Umm Qasr, when a
                   Kuwaiti gunboat challenged a flotilla of about 25 Iraqi dhows.
                   The boats failed to respond and the Kuwaitis opened fire. It
                   was unclear whether the dhows had laid any mines.

                   The Royal Navy has four mine counter-measure vessels in the
                   Gulf which were searching the waterway last night.

Lets pray that it will be over quickly so that the loss of life on both sides will be minimal.

troll