Shi’ite pilgrims converged on the Iraqi city of Najaf on Wednesday amid tight security for their first major religious ceremony since clashes between Shi’ite militias killed 52 people in nearby Kerbala in August.

The U.S. military said on Wednesday it had discovered a list of some 500 al Qaeda militants recruited to fight in Iraq from a range of European, Middle East and north African countries.

A suicide bomber targeted a foreign military convoy in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, slightly wounding one soldier, said a spokesman for NATO-led forces.

Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said on Wednesday Poland would not withdraw a 1,000-strong troop contingent from Iraq after Poland’s ambassador was injured in an attack on his convoy in Baghdad.

Gunmen kidnapped 13 Iraqi men on Wednesday after stopping four cars at a fake checkpoint in the town of Khalis, 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad, a security source said.

Following are security developments in Iraq at 12 p.m. EDT on Tuesday.

 One U.S. soldier was killed and 10 were wounded in combat operations in central Baghdad on Sunday, the U.S. military said on Tuesday.

Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian during a raid in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, Palestinian hospital workers said.

Intelligence agencies of certain regional states have launched extensive efforts to identify arsenals and military depots of the Lebanese Hezbollah group.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a message to Horst Koehler on Tuesday extended his congratulations to the German president, government and nation on the country’s national day.