Eyewitness: Half a million Lebanese Shia Muslims converged on downtown Beirut yesterday in an overwhelming show of force by the pro-Iranian, pro-Syrian Hizbullah movement.
In three weeks of anti-Syrian demonstrations, the Christian, Sunni and Druze opposition have never assembled such a huge crowd.
Superficially, the Hizbullah protest had much in common with the anti-Syrian demonstrations that preceded it.
Hizbullah's secretary general, Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah, asked his followers to carry only the red, white and green Lebanese flag.
From a distance, the rivers of people who began pouring down Beirut's boulevards from late morning looked like those of the previous day. They sang the national anthem with the same fervour.
The Shia throngs even adopted the opposition's slogan: "Freedom. Sovereignty. Independence." Alluding to the assassination of the former prime minister Rafik Hariri, the Shia also flew a banner saying: "We want the truth."
But the same words mean different things to the Shia, who fear western intervention and believe Mr Hariri was assassinated by the US and Israel.
Before the denizens of the Shia southern suburbs set off on their five-kilometre journey, Hizbullah passed out portraits of the Syrian and Lebanese presidents. And Hizbullah hung a provocative banner from a downtown building saying "Thank you, Syria."
Most of the women wore long robes and headscarves. The men were poor and downtrodden, "the oppressed" in Shia parlance.
This demonstration had the feel of the Arab Middle East: Hizbullah security men sidling up to eaves-drop on interviews; people fearful of being quoted by name.
And though a small percentage were bused in from Syria, and despite allegations that some were paid to travel from the north, south and Bekaa Valley, this was no ordinary rent-a-mob.
The Shia Muslims who accosted me, bursting with the desire to speak, are convinced that the expulsion of Syrian forces under UN Security Council Resolution 1559 will result in Israeli domination of Lebanon. Israel occupied parts of the country from 1978 until 2000.
The Lebanon that overflowed Riad Solh Square yesterday has a different history from what one Shia Muslim called "the Gucci revolution" on Martyrs' Square.
"We do not forget that when the Americans came, they shelled us with the [battleship] New Jersey. The Syrians never did that to us," said Fatima (40), a housewife.
The Christians on Martyrs' Square remember they were shelled by the Syrians in 1978 and in 1989.
Hizbullah held their demonstration just on the Muslim side of the 1975-1990 civil war demarcation line.
The Christian-dominated opposition convene several blocks away, on Martyrs' Square. Hundreds of Lebanese soldiers separated the two protest areas.
When Hassan Nasrallah addressed the Lebanese and Syrian people, as well as the presidents of France, the US and Israel, the cheers reverberated like crashing waves.
Meanwhile, a portrait of the slain prime minister, Mr Hariri, and banners proclaiming "Independence 05" and "Syrians Out" hung forlornly over the quiet Martyrs' Square. A cold wind blew down the empty esplanade to Beirut harbour.
"People knew not to come today," sighed a gendarme at the barricade.