Shia Rebellion Ranks Growing

"The Americans say they will capture or kill al-Sadr," Khusai told the militiamen. "What's your response?"

Theirs was more a roar than a response: "We will die that he may live!" they chanted.

Khusai, wrapped in the black linen cape of a religious leader, clasped his hands and smiled. For the Americans to arrest al-Sadr, he said, they "will have to kill all the Iraqi people."

The U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority on Monday labeled al-Sadr an "outlaw" and announced that a warrant had been issued several months ago for his arrest in connection with the murder of a cleric.

Coalition authorities have accused al-Sadr of fomenting two days of rioting in three Iraqi cities that caused the deaths of dozens of Iraqis, eight American soldiers and a Salvadoran trooper.

Yet al-Sadr's followers did not seem intimidated. Their ranks were growing daily, the cleric's lieutenants said Monday.

Still considered a precocious upstart by other Shiite leaders, the 30-year-old al-Sadr has been building up his forces throughout central and southern Iraq. He issues orders from his base in Najaf through fax, mobile phones, leaflets and the Internet in preparation for what increasingly looks like a full-fledged uprising, said his Baghdad-based deputies.