A Libyan colonel that defected to the rebel side last month has said that the regime has had to use soldiers from its elite special forces to command popular militias after suffering months of desertions.
The officer escaped from a government town in the plains below the country's Western Mountains. Lying only 60 miles from Tripoli, the rebels have launched repeated offensives in the effort to reach the capital.
Leaders of the elite fighting force belonging to Gaddafi's son Khamis had left their brigades to fight elsewhere and came to man this front line reported the Colonel. "The leaders are from the Khamis Brigades, but the rest are new recruits or volunteers. They were inexperienced; some barely could hold a gun".
After six months of fighting in a war that is raging across the country, and has three major front lines, the colonel's account depicts signs of strain in government ranks.
Hundreds of young men from low income families in Libya, many with roots in neighbouring Mali and Niger were recruited from their homes in the south of the country, captured government soldiers told the Daily Telegraph from inside a locked hospital ward in the rebel held western mountain town of Yefren.
"I was promised 500 dinar to fight. My father died long ago, and my family needed the money. When I got there I was frightened and I wanted to go home.
My mother didn't want me to come," said a black soldier from Mali aged 20.
The Colonel and the captives report that lies and death threats being used to keep soldiers in line. "They told us we were fighting an invading force of Al Qaeda. A few months ago, they told us Osama Bin Laden had visited," said a captive member of Gaddafi's security brigades. "And on state television we saw that NATO was hitting the homes of innocent civilians.
Watching other news channels is a punishable offense." Some fighters are hardened regime loyalists, including men who left their posts in the Navy to come and fight for Gaddafi. But up to "80 per cent" would leave if they could, said the Colonel, who depended on the help of his fellow officers to escape.
"When we realised we were battling Libyans, many of the boys said that because they were Muslims, was sinful to fight. A lot of the soldiers don't want to fight" said a captured Libyan soldier.
"Many of the officers I was with got excited when they heard that the rebels had made progress. But it is hard to escape. If they think you might defect, they will execute you immediately," said the Colonel.
The Nato bombing campaign has also weakened the government troops significantly he reported. It has also stopped lethal attacks on the rebel capital Benghazi.
"Gaddafi intended to strike the court house with scud missiles, but the scud missile launcher had to be moved from his home town of Sirte. They couldn't do it because NATO would bomb them."
Despite the allegations, government troops have so far succeeded in curtailing rebel advances on the capital. Rebel offenses to the east and west of the country have seen fierce fighting, but have failed to break a months' long stalemate.
"Gaddafi still has lots of ammunition," said the Colonel. "And there are loyalists who have joined him. In my group men volunteered to leave the Navy to fight for him on the front lines".
In preparation for the long fight, the defected colonel is now training rebel fighters in the mountain town of Nalut. "I know how Gaddafi works, and I have trained 150 to battle against him. Tomorrow they graduate, and I will train more and more until we end this".
