The U.S. military is at the frontlines of the tsunami disaster, helping to deliver aid to those who need it in Indonesia.

A U.S. Navy aircraft carrier battle group is heading from Hong Kong to the shores of Sumatra. The first of many Air Force C-130 cargo planes has landed in Indonesia with a load of blankets, plastic sheeting and medicines.

As the death toll from southern Asia’s deadly earthquake and tsunami waves soared Thursday, Washington put long-standing concerns over politics and human rights violations in Indonesia aside and mobilized its military for what promises to be a complex relief mission.

The Bush administration regards Indonesia - the world’s most populous Muslim nation - as its key Southeast Asian ally in the war on international terrorism and the disaster is offering an opportunity to demonstrate the humanitarian capabilities of the U.S. military.

But officials said saving lives is more important than scoring political points.

“Considering the pressing need, whatever we do couldn’t be fast enough,” said Charles Silver, spokesman at the U.S. Embassy. “We have not had trouble getting our people in.”

Silver said the first U.S. cargo plane, a C-130 flying out of Kadena, Japan, touched down in the Sumatran city of Medan on Thursday with a load of relief supplies and body bags for the estimated 80,000 dead in this country alone.

The plane also brought an advance team of about a dozen troops who will assess the situation and determine the logistics needed for the U.S. relief operation.

Complicating the problems caused by the devastation, the Sumatran province of Aceh, nearest the epicenter of Sunday’s mammoth earthquake, has long been restricted to foreigners because of a decades-old separatist insurgency.

Guerrillas have been fighting since 1976 for an independent homeland in Aceh, where many of the 4.3 million people live in poverty despite the province’s wealth in natural resources. At least 13,000 people have been killed, and both the insurgents and government have been accused of human rights abuses.

But the sheer scale of the disaster has prompted Indonesia’s government to open its borders, and the Americans are part of a giant overseas military force pouring into the region.

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