Muqtada al-Sadr keeps shrieking that he wants to die. Why haven’t we granted his wish? Finding him isn’t a problem; he struts and rants for TV cameras and reporters every day. Iraq Cleric Vows Fight to Death Vs. US.

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

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

A Najaf hospital spokesman reported three people killed, including two policemen, and 19 wounded Monday. A senior U.S. military official in Baghdad estimated Monday that 360 insurgents died in Najaf in the first four days of the battle, although al-Sadr’s militia insists the toll has been far lower.

Five U.S. troops have been killed in Najaf, according to the military, and the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said 19 had been wounded. He said four Iraqi national guardsmen also had been killed and 12 wounded.

Al-Sadr vowed to keep up the battle. “I will continue fighting,” al-Sadr told reporters. “I will remain in Najaf city until the last drop of my blood has been spilled.”

After al-Sadr launched a two-month uprising in April, U.S. commanders vowed to “capture or kill” him, but later tacitly agreed to let Iraqi authorities deal with the cleric. Asked what current U.S. policy toward al-Sadr is, the senior officer in Baghdad said al-Sadr “is not an objective; we are not actively pursuing him.”