Gaddafi troops reclaim village

delivering a set-back to rebel plans for a march on Tripoli.
The loss of the village of Al-Qawalish, about 100km from the capital, underlined the faltering pattern of the rebel advances that has led some of the rebels’ Western backers to push for a political solution to the conflict instead.
Fighters who pulled back to the nearby town of Zintan said pro-Gaddafi forces had swept through Al-Qawalish from the east and reached as far as the checkpoint on the western edge of the village.
“We are fuelling up, preparing and, God willing, we are going to take it back,” said one fighter in Zintan, who was at the wheel of a pickup truck with a heavy weapon mounted on the back.
Earlier, a Reuters team in Al-Qawalish heard small arms fire and explosions from shells landing on the eastern edge of the village.
Several truckloads of rebel fighters sped west out of the village, away from the attacking government forces, with one shouting: “Go, go, it is not safe here!”
One rebel fighter said the fighting started after a rebel unit tried to advance east from Al-Qawalish in the direction of the town of Garyan, which controls access to the main highway leading north into the capital Tripoli.
Another fighter, on the western edge of Al-Qawalish, said: “We ran out of bullets and we had to pull out.” The conflict in Libya started out as a rebellion against Gaddafi’s 41-year-rule. It has now turned into the bloodiest of the “Arab Spring” uprisings convulsing the region and has also embroiled Western powers in a prolonged war they had hoped would swiftly force Gaddafi out of power.
The Libyan leader is refusing to quit and the rebels have been unable to make a decisive breakthrough towards his stronghold in the capital despite support from Western warplanes. France said on Tuesday a political way out of the conflict was now being looked at, and that Gaddafi’s emissaries have been in contact with Nato members to say he is ready to leave power.
“A political solution is more than ever indispensable and is beginning to take shape,” French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said in Paris.
But it was not obvious how negotiations could persuade Gaddafi to change his mind and relinquish power, especially at a time when the Western alliance ranged against him is showing signs of wavering.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy is under pressure to find a quick solution. He gambled by taking a personal role in supporting the rebels, but is now anxious to avoid costly military operations running into the start of campaigning for the April 2012 presidential election. – Reuters.