BAGHDAD, Iraq - When U.S. forces captured Baghdad a year ago, Salem, a young Shia Muslim, was an unemployed car mechanic full of hope.

He went out to cheer American soldiers as their tanks rumbled through the capital and imagined what life would be like without Saddam Hussein's regime. "The tyrant Saddam was gone," said Salem, 20, lighting a cigarette. "For the first time in my life, I felt like I could be free."

But it did not take long for Salem to want to fight U.S. forces. As the months went by, life in Sadr City, the teeming Shia slum where Salem lives, did not get much better. Electricity was still erratic, the narrow alleyways were still full of garbage and children still played in puddles of sewage.

One man offered Salem new hope: the young, fiery cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Last June, Salem began attending al-Sadr's Friday sermons at the Hikma Mosque, a drab two-story building with peeling paint that became one of al-Sadr's main organizing centers. In July, when al-Sadr announced the formation of a militia called the Mahdi Army, Salem quickly signed up.

"All the other clerics were staying quiet, but Muqtada al-Sadr was the only one who wasn't afraid of the Americans," said Salem, who refused to give his last name because he is an active member of al-Sadr's militia and has been involved in fighting with U.S. forces. "Al-Sadr stood up to the Americans from the first day they came to Iraq."

Young and poor

Al-Sadr's militia is full of men like Salem: young, poor and with little education. They have little more to look forward to than they did under Hussein's regime, which brutally repressed Iraq's Shia majority. By joining the Mahdi Army, they see a chance to gain respect, power and, in some cases, a modest income.

Iraqi experts estimate that the militia has from 3,000 to 10,000 fighters. The Pentagon has said the number of hard-core members could be as low as 1,000. Whatever the size of his militia, Iraqis say, it is a mistake to dismiss al-Sadr's influence among the young and dispossessed.

"Most of al-Sadr's followers are young men, and his base of support has been expanding every day," said Jafaar Muhammad, a communications professor at Baghdad University. "We have to listen to him. We have to understand what he wants and we have to involve him in the political process."

Al-Sadr, 30, has two important claims to leadership: He is the son of a revered cleric who was assassinated by Hussein's regime, and he never left Iraq to live in comfortable exile. Those themes, which al-Sadr has highlighted frequently in his struggle with more senior clerics, resonate on the streets of Sadr City.

"Muqtada is young, that's true," said Salem, a lanky youth who has a wispy mustache and grease stains on his hands. "But he has a right to lead the Shia of Iraq. And he never left Iraq like those other clerics who went to live in London while the Shia were massacred. Muqtada suffered like the rest of us."

Salem was referring to Abdul Majid al-Khoei, a rival cleric of al-Sadr's, who returned from 12 years of exile in London last year only to be stabbed to death days later by a mob outside the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf.

To Salem and other Mahdi Army members, al-Khoei was a traitor who had returned to Iraq under U.S. military escort to help the U.S. occupation. Al-Sadr's supporters also heap scorn on Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, another senior cleric who lived more than 20 years in Iran and is a member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council.

A fight to the death

"All those clerics who lived abroad are now American stooges," said Muhsin, 22, a friend of Salem's who is also a member of al-Sadr's militia and refused to give his last name. "And if they don't work for the Americans, then they're working for the Iranians or maybe the Syrians."

U.S. occupation officials announced last week that they plan to arrest al-Sadr on a warrant issued several months ago by an Iraqi judge investigating al-Khoei's murder. If al-Sadr is captured or killed by the Americans, his men vow to fight to the death.

"We will make Iraq a living hell for the Americans if they lay a hand on Muqtada," said Muhsin, a muscular man with brown eyes and a short-cropped beard.

Like Salem, Muhsin joined al-Sadr's militia last summer after hearing the cleric and his deputies preach in Sadr City. The men admit they have received little formal training from the Mahdi Army, but they both had basic weapons training with paramilitary forces during Hussein's regime.

"Every Iraqi knows how to shoot a gun and fire an RPG," or rocket-propelled grenade, Salem said, grinning.

The pair insisted they did not join al-Sadr's militia for money but admitted their families get about $100 a month in assistance from al-Sadr's charitable offices. The men said they're still trying to find steady work, and being in the Mahdi Army has helped Salem get occasional jobs fixing cars and Muhsin work as a construction laborer.

Respect for al-Sadr

Salem and Muhsin both said they took part in recent fighting between the Mahdi Army and U.S. forces in Sadr City, which is named after the cleric's assassinated father. They sometimes wear the militia's all-black uniforms, including face masks, and they carry assault rifles and handguns. But their weapons often are stashed in alleyways, ditches and other places to avoid U.S. military raids.

Both men said they respect Iraq's most senior Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who has been criticized by al-Sadr for failing to challenge the occupation strongly.

"Ayatollah Sistani is a great scholar," said Muhsin, fingering prayer beads as Salem listened intently. "But he is not protecting the interests of all Iraqi Shia like Muqtada."

Al-Sadr is the only surviving son of Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, who was assassinated by Hussein's regime in 1999. Since the fall of Hussein's government, al-Sadr has tried to win support by creating a social service network in Shia cities, fiercely criticizing the U.S. occupation and modeling himself after his father's vision of an activist clergy.

But al-Sadr has been hampered by his youth and lack of religious credentials. In the Shia hierarchy, al-Sadr is a low-level cleric, several ranks and many years away from attaining the title of ayatollah, which would allow him to issue religious rulings.

Devout Shia must choose a senior cleric, or marja, to emulate on all matters of life. Only an ayatollah or grand ayatollah can reach that status.

Al-Sadr's father was a widely followed marja, but Shia tradition dictates that believers must choose a new cleric to emulate once their marja dies. Even though he holds a low clerical rank, many of Muqtada al-Sadr's supporters look to him as the inheritor of his father's legacy.

Muhsin said his parents had emulated the elder al-Sadr until his death, and he is following their example. "I chose to follow Muqtada because my family has always adhered to the rulings of the al-Sadrs," he said. "I consider Muqtada my marja, even if he's not an ayatollah."

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