Opposition fighters and soldiers loyal to longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi exchanged artillery fire for six hours on Wednesday before rebels succeeded in driving loyalist troops out of the mountain town of al-Qawalish in Libya's west.

After taking the town, rebels found food and ammunition left behind by Gaddafi's forces, as well as the dead bodies of some of their opponents. Al-Qawalish had been a base for the regime's Grad rocket attacks on nearby Yifrin.

The rebels will now need to regroup, but they're one step closer to Gharyan, the main garrison town in the Nafusa Mountains and the gateway to the highway to Tripoli.

Al Jazeera's Jonah Hull reports from al-Qawalish.