WAR DEVELOPMENTS

IRAQ

> The U.S. military said a detainee died of an apparent heart attack while in custody at a U.S. detention facility near Baghdad’s airport. Monday’s statement said the 25-year-old man was pronounced dead by doctors at a combat hospital after losing consciousness at Camp Cropper. It did not give his name or nationality or say why he was being held.

> U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura urged the Shiite-led government to give due process to imprisoned Saddam Hussein-era figures when American troops begin handing over prisoners next month under the new U.S.-Iraqi security agreement. Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch said Iraq’s main court fails to meet international fairness standards, with judges relying on evidence from secret informants and confessions that are probably coerced.

> Japan withdrew one of three planes involved in airlift operations in Iraq on Monday, as it neared the close of its nearly five-year noncombat mission in the region. The two others will leave later this month, the Defense Ministry said. The planes have been airlifting equipment and troops in support of the U.S.-led mission.

> A suicide truck bomber killed at least nine police officers Monday and wounded 13 others at a checkpoint west of Baghdad. Hours earlier north of Baghdad, a female suicide bomber knocked on the front door of the home of the leader of a local U.S.-allied Sunni militia and blew herself up, killing him. In northern Iraq, gunmen stormed a home, killing seven people in a single family, members of the minority Yazidi sect.

> The British government is doubling the maximum cash payment it gives to severely wounded soldiers after criticism that amputees and other veterans of the Iraq and Afghan wars are not being not suitably compensated. The Defense Ministry announced Monday that the current limit of $428,000 would be raised to $855,000 and will apply retroactively.

PAKISTAN

> Pakistan will not let British investigators question suspects detained in Pakistan in last month’s Mumbai, India, terrorist attacks, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Monday. “If there were any proofs, these persons will be prosecuted under the law of Pakistan.” India has blamed the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba for the attacks, which killed more than 160 people, including three British citizens, and Pakistan has arrested at least two key suspects. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown had asked for access during a visit to Islamabad on Sunday, arguing that cooperation was vital to defeat transnational terrorism.

AFGHANISTAN

> Pakistani truckers are refusing to haul vital supplies to NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan because of mounting militant attacks. The Khyber Transport Union said Monday that drivers of 3,500 trucks and trailers were boycotting work carrying military supplies —- and that no offer of improved terms and security would persuade them to risk their lives or equipment again.

> A joint Afghan-NATO operation in Helmand province, in the country’s dangerous south, killed 40 militants, including a regional Taliban leader, the government said Monday. The fighting came as Britain announced is was sending 300 more troops to the country.