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Loyalist troops seized the rebel checkpoint at Gualish, a key gateway on the road to the capital which insurgents seized last week, before pushing on towards the rebels' enclave in the Nafusa Mountains.
The AFP correspondent saw very few rebels on the road towards Kikla as the retreating fighters scrambled to regroup.
Only Monday, the rebels had been talking of launching a major advance themselves, eyeing the loyalist-held towns of Asabah and Gharyan at the eastern end of the range.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011