Here's a big reason why the uprising in Libya has faced such brutal resistance.

The Swedish newspaper Expressen (ht: @makro_trader) reports that Qaddafi's private mercenary army is 120,000-strong, making it far larger than the official Libyan army, which only totals about 50K.

And because the mercenaries have no allegiance to the Libyans -- they're mercenaries after all -- they're willing to engage in brutality.

The mercenaries in Libya wear yellow hats. Here's a video of them chasing and beating Libyans.