ISTANBUL (AP): A U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer loaded with humanitarian aid was heading to Georgia on Thursday, the U.S. military said.

It was the first of three U.S. Navy ships that will carry supplies such as blankets, hygiene kits and baby food to Georgia via the Turkish Straits to help the country following its war with Russia over the breakaway republic of South Ossetia.

The deliveries are part of a wider, ongoing U.S. effort to transport aid to Georgia that began last week with flights from Germany and Italy.

The guided destroyer USS McFaul left Souda Bay, Crete, on Wednesday, the U.S. military's European Command said Thursday.

A coast guard cutter, Dallas, is scheduled to leave Souda Bay on Friday, and the command ship USS Mount Whitney is to depart from Gaeta, Italy, said Paul Farley, a public affairs officer at the Souda Bay U.S. naval base in Crete.

Farley said all three ships were expected to reach Georgia ``within the next week.'' The vessels' exact destination in Georgia was not immediately disclosed.

``They are carrying hygiene kits ... (and) ``items like paper plates, toilet paper, UHT milk, diapers, baby formula and blankets,'' Farley said.

On Wednesday, the U.S. State Department said Turkey had granted permission for the ships to pass through the Turkish Straits into the Black Sea to deliver the humanitarian relief supplies to Georgia. The Turkish Straits, Dardanelles and Bosporus, are the only naval passage possible between the Mediterranean and Black Sea.

The three ships will be the first U.S. vessels to deliver aid to Georgia.

Turkey's foreign ministry said Germany, Poland and Spain also have notified the Turkish government that they are sending humanitarian aid aboard navy ships to Georgia via the Turkish Straits.