Iraqi cleric vows to keep up fight: Car bombing kills six, wounds at least 17, including top official

NAJAF, Iraq - A radical cleric whose loyalists battled U.S. troopsfor the fifth straight day vowed today to fight to the death, and asuicide attacker detonated a car bomb northeast of the capital,killing six people and wounding the deputy governor who was theintended target, officials said.

Explosions and gunfire were heard throughout Najaf and U.S.helicopters hovered overhead as U.S. forces tried to drive Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militiamen from a vast cemetery they haverepeatedly used as a base. A U.S. tank rolled within 400 yards ofNajaf's holiest site, the Imam Ali Shrine, also held by militiamen.

A Najaf hospital spokesman said three were killed, including twopolicemen, and 19 wounded. The U.S. military says hundreds ofmilitants have been killed in the violence in recent days; themilitiamen put the number far lower.

Al-Sadr vowed to keep up the battle.

"I will continue fighting," al-Sadr told reporters. "I will remainin Najaf city until the last drop of my blood has been spilled."

Iraq's defense minister, Hazem Shaalan, accused neighboring Iranof helping arm the Shiite militiamen and branded Iran his country's"first enemy."

"There are Iranian-made weapons that have been found in the handsof criminals in Najaf who received these weapons from across theIranian border," Shaalan said in an interview with the Arab-languagetelevision network al-Arabiya.

Government officials have said many of those involved in the Najafviolence were criminals and implied they were not true followers ofthe popular Shiite firebrand. But al-Sadr said the militants were hisfollowers and described them as volunteers fighting for an honorablecause.

The car bombing in Balad Ruz, 40 miles northeast of Baghdad,targeted the home of Diyala province's deputy governor, Aqil Hamid al-Adili, who was in stable condition and was being treated at a U.S.-led coalition medical facility, military spokesman Maj. Neal O'Briensaid.

Six Iraqi policemen were killed and at least 17 people wounded,including police and passers-by, Police Brig. Daoud Mahmoud said.