WAR DEVELOPMENTS

IRAQ

> Lawmakers loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Wednesday disrupted a parliamentary debate ahead of a Nov. 24 vote on a U.S.-Iraqi security agreement that would keep American troops in Iraq for three more years, causing the session to be adjourned until today. The 275-seat legislature does not have much time to adopt the security pact, and the Sadrists’ tactic appears designed to take advantage of that to derail the agreement. The legislature is expected to go into recess in early December for the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha, when scores of lawmakers will travel to Saudi Arabia for the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.

> The U.S. military on Wednesday announced the arrest of an alleged senior member of Iran’s elite security forces suspected of funneling arms into Iraq under cover of an organization that allegedly uses the construction and repair of religious sites to funnel arms into the country.

> The decomposed remains of up to 15 people believed to be Sunnis killed by Shiite militias last year were found in a mass grave in the mainly Shiite Ur neighborhood in the eastern part of Baghdad after Iraqi soldiers were led to the site by a tipster.

> In the holy city of Najaf south of Baghdad, a memorial service was held Wednesday as the remains of about 150 victims of a crackdown against Kurds under Saddam Hussein were readied for return to the Kurdish city of Irbil in northern Iraq. The government said the victims, found in a mass grave, were believed to have been executed after mass explusions from northern Iraq during the so-called Anfal campaign in the 1980s.

PAKISTAN

> A suspected American missile struck a village in the Bannu district deep inside Pakistani territory Wednesday, marking what appeared to be the first time the U.S. has struck beyond the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan. Six alleged militants were killed. Intelligence officials said militants have begun moving away from the border to avoid such strikes.

> Hours after the strike, a large Islamist political party warned it would block two major supply routes for U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan that run through Pakistan unless attacks cease.

> Gunmen on the outskirts of Islamabad shot and killed a retired Pakistani army general who had led military operations against insurgents in tribal regions.

> Pakistan’s army chief urged NATO commanders to focus on winning the population’s backing in areas bordering Afghanistan to prevent Taliban and al-Qaida militants from using them as safe havens. Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani met with a committee of NATO commanders in Brussels, Belgium, on Wednesday —- the first time Pakistan’s military leader had met with the group.