Muqtada al-Sadr, a Iraqi Shia leader, has called on Arab states to support his militia's battle against "US occupation", amid continuing clashes between armed Shia groups and Iraqi government forces.
His remarks on Saturday came as Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, called Shia militias in the southern city of Basra "worse than al-Qaeda".
More than 200 people have reportedly died since an Iraqi military crackdown in Basra sparked violence across the country.
Al-Maliki, who is personally supervising the operation in Basra, has said that Iraqi forces would not leave "without restoring security and order".
"We will continue to stand up to these gangs in every inch of Iraq," he said in remarks broadcast on state-owned television on Saturday.
"There are some among us who are worse than al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda is killing innocents, al-Qaeda is destroying establishments and they [Shia fighters] also," he said.
Basra fighting
In Basra, government soldiers said on Saturday that they had killed 120 fighters.
Iraqi police said that eight civilians were killed and seven wounded in an air raid by US aircraft on a house in Basra on Saturday.
The US military said it was looking into the report.
Both US and British military aircraft have provided air support to Iraqi forces in southern Iraq.
US forces said they had killed 48 fighters in air strikes and gun battles across Baghdad on Friday.
At least 133 bodies and 647 wounded were taken into hospitals in eastern Baghdad over five days of clashes, the head of the area's health directorate, Ali Bustan, said.
Late on Saturday, the Baghdad military command extended the curfew in the capital indefinitely, state television Al-Iraqiya said.
The curfew, which was imposed late on Thursday, was originally set to expire on Sunday at 5am (0200 GMT).
Scores of people were reported killed in fighting in other towns across the south of the country.
Fighting has also been reported in the central city of Karbala.
Mahdi Army targeted
The Basra crackdown is aimed at disarming the city's warring Shia militias, including the Mahdi Army of al-Sadr, as well as crushing a number of criminal gangs.
In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera in Damascus, al-Sadr called on the Arab League, the Organization of the Islamic Conference and the United Nations to recognize "the Iraqi resistance".
"I appeal to these parties to add legitimacy to the resistance and to stand by, not against, the Iraqi people because the Iraqi people need Arabs as much as they need any other person," he said.
"Iraq is still under occupation and the United States' popularity is reducing every day and every minute in Iraq.
"I call, through Al Jazeera, for the departure of the occupying troops from Iraq as soon as possible."
Meanwhile, fighters loyal to al-Sadr rejected the prime minister's call to disarm.
"Al-Sadr has told us not to surrender our arms except to a state that can throw out the occupation," Haider al-Jabari, a member of the Sadr movement's political bureau, said.
On Thursday al-Maliki said that Basra residents would receive a "reward" if they handed in "heavy and medium-size weapons".
However, in Baghdad an official from al-Sadr's bloc said Iraqi soldiers had attempted to hand their weapons over to him.
"We told them they should keep their arms. We gave them a Quran and they went back," Salman al-Afraiji said.
Restrictions review
A curfew is in place in the capital amid the violence, with restrictions set to be reviewed by the military command on Sunday.
James Bays, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Baghdad, said on Saturday that missiles were still being fired.
"I heard six mortars or rockets - it's difficult to distinguish between the sound of mortars and Katyusha rockets - land in the Green Zone," he said.
Ahmed, a resident of Sadr City, home to two million people, said the situation was deteriorating.
"The hospitals are overflowing with wounded. They can't take any more. Even the medical stores are closed," he told the AFP news agency.
"There is no electricity, no water or fuel. We are afraid of gun battles. The main markets are also closed."
Qassim Mohammed, a spokesman for Baghdad health directorate, said in Sadr City: "Seventy-five people have been killed and 498 wounded in clashes in Sadr City in the last four days."
He accused American forces of "creating obstacles" in transporting victims of the violence to safety.
PHOTO CAPTION
Residents gather outside a damaged building after clashes in Baghdad's Sadr City March 29, 2008.
Al-Jazeera