Colonel Gaddafi forces retake village from rebels

FORCES loyal to Libyan leader Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi yesterday retook a village seized by rebels a week ago, delivering a setback to rebel plans for a march on Tripoli.

The loss of the village of Al-Qawalish, 60 miles south of Tripoli, underlined the uneasy alliance between Arab and Berber fighters in the western mountains opposed to Col Gaddafi's regime.

Arab fighters from the town of Zintan blamed Berber units for failing to hold back loyalist troops. Walid Tarhouni, 31, said: "The Kikla and Galaa (Berber] fighters demanded we return their territory, so we passed it over and returned to Zintan. But they are not strong enough.

"It is because the Kikla and Galaa tribes were sleepy. They had left the checkpoints unmanned when the Gaddafi guys came through."

Rebel forces had been planning to use Al-Qawalish as a staging post to take the nearby town of Garyan, which controls access to the main highway to Tripoli.