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Regular troops and mercenaries nearly overwhelmed the rag-tag rebels, consisting of military deserters and ill-trained militiamen brought together under the banner of the National Transitional Council (NTC). The colonel could afford to dismiss them as wayward 17-year-olds, “given pills at night, hallucinatory pills in their drinks, their milk, their coffee, their Nescafe”. The intervention of Nato on the rebels’ side in March, authorised by a UN resolution calling for the protection of civilians, prevented their seemingly imminent annihilation – but it was months before they could turn the situation to their advantage.
