Flying the flag in Libya at an embassy wrecked by regime's thugs - Vancouver Sun

The billiard table is burned and broken. The pool is half-filled with fetid water. Table place settings are strewn across the overgrown lawn.

Her Britannic Majesty's ambassador's residence in Tripoli is filled with charred debris, the leftovers from a fire started when Moammar Gadhafi's regime unleashed its goons to loot and destroy the building.

But last night as the sun set over the newly liberated capital, the Union flag flew once again, raised by a newly fashioned Home Guard of Libyans who are protecting buildings of status.

"We know this is very important," said a Kalashnikov-toting leader, who asked not to be named but who lives in an apartment block nearby. "One of our boys has put up the flag again. We are very happy now."

The Daily Telegraph travelled to the building on a rise overlooking the city harbour Wednesday, a day after the regime melted away.

The destruction of the building, along with the Italian and French residences, was carried out after the establishment of the UN no-fly zone enforced by Nato jets.

"When the people came here to see what was happening, they found Gaddafi's men," said Osama Driebi, a retired businessman. "My son came here and he was disgusted. Security said take what you want, take what you can. They had already looted the place of course." On the drive, a marble memorial to the Desert Rats campaign lies shattered. Four burned-out embassy cars sit in the portico. A broken dishwasher contains cracked pieces of a bone china set. A playroom is littered with charred pieces of Monopoly and backgammon games.

The Government Art Collection has said the loss of works in the attack was significant.

Strewn among the debris and waste were clues to why Libya so resented the about-turn in British policy following the Feb 17 uprising against Gaddafi.

One piece of paper sets out the first points of an accord on defence co-operation between Britain and Libya for defence sales in 2007. "To build a stable and long-term special relationship between the two countries as equal partners, proceeding from the principle of mutual respect and confidence," the accord stated. Nearby, 15 bags of shredded paper are dumped in a heap. Parts of a briefing paper on the political situation in Libya were also lying in the open.

Across the capital, a welter of information on the regime's dealings with the world sits in filing cabinets. In the deserted office block of Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, the former prime minister, notepads still sit on the cabinet table.

Ordinary Libyans from the houses around government installations were guarding the gatesWednesday. Many have not allowed visitors to open locked doors.

There has been no sign yet of the frenzy of looting that accompanied the fall of Baghdad. "We are protecting our national assets," said a guard at the foreign ministry.

The National Transitional Council in Benghazi has said leaders will be in situ in the capital in two days, but the presence of Gaddafi loyalists fighting from strongholds in the Abu Salim and Hatra districts is intensifying an atmosphere of suspicion.

"There are many, many militias there from Algeria and Africa. They are very dangerous," said Mohammad Abugabha, 22, an airline pilot who manned a checkpoint near the central mosque.

Visitors to Bab al-Azizia, Col Gaddafi's old compound, were forced to flee Wednesday afternoon after mortar fire and snipers targeted rebels searching the buildings. One French cameraman was shot in the neck.

The fear of a Gaddafi loyalist attack is pervasive in surrounding areas. Strangers have been held by local men who proclaim their rebel sympathies, but there is no way of knowing who is truly for the uprising or against. The only way to vouchsafe for traffic is to know someone in the car.