The leader of the largest Iraqi Shiite Muslim group opposed to Saddam Hussein returned to Iraq on Saturday after two decades in exile, arriving to expectations that he will figure prominently in the future of the country. Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution of Iraq, rolled across the Iranian frontier into Iraq at a desert border crossing that has been a no-man's land for years. He had been in exile in Iran and under protection of its Shiite religious leaders since 1980. About 2,000 supporters, including some clerics, gathered during the morning with the green flags and portraits of al-Hakim. When he finally crossed the border midmorning, the crowd swarmed his car, climbed upon it and chanted: "Yes, yes, Islam! Yes, yes, al-Hakim!" and "We sacrifice our blood for al-Hakim." Al-Hakim's group wants Iraq's future to be governed by Islamic law. He has said in recent days that SCIRI seeks to "realize the will of the Iraqi people," rebuild the country and establish good relationships with neighbors. Al-Hakim, also known as Baqir, remained in Iran during the weeks after the war last month. His brother, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, who commands the group's armed wing, returned to Iraq in advance to pave the way for the Baqir's return. The brother has been meeting with a small core group of returned exiles who appear poised to become the nucleus of a new government installed by U.S. occupation forces. Many have compared al-Hakim's return to that of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who spent 14 years in exile in Iraq before returning to lead Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution and lead its clerical regime until his death in 1989. "He is the new Khomeini for us. A majority of Iraqi people want him as our leader," said Mohamed Abu al-Zawra, a resident of the southern Iraqi city of Basra who came to the border to welcome al-Hakim. The Shiites, a minority in the Islamic world, suffered persecution and oppression under Saddam's regime. Iraqi Shiites are Arab, not Persian like their Iranian counterparts, and have a strong sense of Iraqi nationalism. During the Iran-Iraq war from 1980-88, they did not rise up against Saddam; in 1991, after the Gulf War, a Shiite uprising broke out that Saddam put down brutally. The United States is wary of any Iranian-style theocracy taking control in Iraq, and is particularly jittery about the possibility that a democratic vote might produce a conservative, Islamic-oriented government with close ties to Iran's anti-American Shiite clerics. Washington has accused Tehran - which gave al-Hakim refuge for so long - of meddling in Iraqi affairs. Al-Hakim's first stop will be the southern Iraqi city of Basra, a Shiite stronghold. He is also expected to go to Najaf, a center for Shiite Islam scholarship. SCIRI opposes a U.S. administration in Iraq but has close ties with the rest of the U.S.-backed opposition, including the Kurds and the London-based Iraqi National Congress. The council's military wing, the Badr Brigade, which the group claims has several thousand fighters, operated secretly for years in Iraq against Saddam's rule. The fighters have been ordered not to confront U.S. forces, but the group has made its rejection of American dominance clear: It boycotted the first major U.S.-led meeting near Nasiriyah last month to pave the way for a new administration. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim, the leader of the biggest anti-Saddam Hussein Shiite opposition group, places his hand on his heart as a gesture of respect to Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Jazayeri, who represents Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Khuzestan province, unseen, as he arrives in the southwestern Iranian city of Ahvaz Friday, May 9, 2003. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)