Al-Melaf Press reports that gunmen dressed in Iraqi police uniform and using official vehicles raided the fish market in Salihiya near the Green Zone and abducted up to 12 people, Sunday morning. Both Eye Iraq Media and Al-Heya Net confirmed the raid and added that the gunmen arrived at the market in four police vehicles. The Interior Ministry has not released any statement on the incident yet. Meanwhile in Mosul, a security source told PUK Media that unknown gunmen kidnapped 30 workers at the Tahrir district.

Tensions are running high in Basrah as a sit-in demanding the resignation of the governor enters its seventh day. Police opened fire against the demonstrators today, according to eyewitness accounts, while several members of the Basrah Governorate Council have reportedly received threats from unknown groups. Abu Mujahid Al-Maliki, member of the Debaathification Committee and an official in the Hizbullah Iraq Movement, escaped an assassination attempt that killed two of his bodyguards in the Jaza’er district Sunday. The attack came 24 hours after the residence of MP Abdul Wahhab Al-Hakim (UIA) in Ma’qal was attacked with small-arms fire with no reported casualties. The Sadrist Movement is leading the drive to oust the current governor, Mohammed Misbah Al-Wa’ili, a member of the Fadhila Islamic Party, which dominates the governorate council and the police and army force in Basrah.

The US military has imposed a curfew from Sunday night until Monday morning in the Sunni district of Adhamiya following reports that residents were preparing to stage a demonstration to protest the construction of a three-mile concrete wall around their district, which the US said is to protect the district from sectarian violence. Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki had voiced his objection to the wall Sunday, while residents and local council leaders in Adhamiya have described it as “collective punishment,” adding that they did not approve the project, which had started two weeks ago.

The Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq issued statement No. 402 expressing its concern about recent media reports on growing divisions among major Iraqi insurgent groups. The association said the US is attempting to exploit the rift between different insurgent groups in order to prolong its presence on Iraqi soil. The association also called on insurgent groups to shed disputes and turn all attention toward US forces and to avoid attacks against Iraqi civilians and institutions. “The occupier is the principal enemy and the root of all problems in Iraq,” the statement said. “Whoever targets the innocent sons of Iraq, their possessions, or their institutions, whether intentionally or by mistake, is working for the benefit of the occupation and is contributing to achieving their goals.”

Al-Khafaji said Al-Kifa’I was notorious for his ill treatment of Iraqi reporters and his attempts at censorship when he was in office under the Governing Council, and that he founded a political party (Hamad) to run for elections in 2005. Al-Kifa’i had also abused his official position by asking the Washington bureau of Radio Sawa to employ his brother as a correspondent, Al-Khafaji said. Al-Khafaji also hints that a “well-known US official” had pressured Al-Hurra TV in Washington to appoint Al-Kifa’I as director of the Iraq channel, adding that the US officials in Iraq had suffered from the same “misinformation,” which caused the same Iraqis who cheered for US troops in 2003 to call for their withdrawal today.

Eye Iraq Media reports that the Baghdad Governorate Council approved a project to construct a floating bridge for pedestrians across the Tigris River between the Shi’ite districts of Kadhimiya and Grai’at. Baghdad Mayor Sabir Al-Eisawi said construction is expected to start within the next two weeks. “The bridge will help solve traffic congestions on other bridges in Baghdad since the bombing of the Sarafiya Bridge,” he said. The governorate council also voted on a decision to change the names of two freeway bridges in Baghdad. The Dabbash Bridge west of Baghdad was renamed to Al-Jawadain Bridge, after the names of the Shi’ite imams buried in the adjacent Kadhimiya district, and the Talibiya Bridge over the Army Canal east of Baghdad was renamed to the Mohammed Baqir Al-Hakim Bridge, after the former SCIRI leader who was killed in a car bomb explosion at Najaf in 2003.