BRANDISHING Hezbollah flags and portraits of its leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, thousands of enraged protesters smashed their way into the United Nations building in Beirut yesterday, where they ransacked offices and started fires.

Brushing aside an ineffectual cordon of armed police, the mob hurled stones at the glass-fronted tower and tore up metal railings to use as battering rams to break down fortified doors.

For an hour they were allowed to run wild in the compound, breaking into offices, destroying furniture and looting desks and filing cabinets until a squad of Hezbollah’s security guards showed up.

If anyone wanted a demonstration of who exerts effective control on the streets of Beirut, the Shia militia provided one.

The militiamen watched impassively as youths ripped down the UN flag and replaced it with Hezbollah’s yellow colours and stood by as half a dozen demonstrators beat up a security guard. They used their walkie-talkies to monitor the invaders’ progress.

Only when a gang began torching rooms on the first floor and threatened to seize the 80 UN staff working upstairs on a ceasefire plan and the humanitarian relief operation did Hezbollah step in and the mob melted away without argument.

Last night Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, thanked Lebanon’s forces for rescuing his staff and handing the headquarters back to his shaken envoys. All those who had witnessed the mayhem realised that Hezbollah alone had prevented further destruction.

Fouad Siniora, Lebanon’s Prime Minister, saluted the outlawed Hezbollah organisation last night for “its sacrifices” as he summoned international diplomats to explain why he had told Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, that there was no point in her travelling to Beirut yesterday unless it was to agree an immediate and unconditional surrender, as demanded by his country.

Mr Siniora accused Israel of war crimes and almost broke down as he told the diplomatic corps that one of the Qana victims was a one-day-old baby.

Amin Khoudouri, a 23-year-old US educated computer analyst, expressed the view of many when he shouted during a demonstration: “I was never Hezbollah before, but now I swear I will join them.”

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