AJDABIYAH, Libya (Updated 1) - Libyan rebels headed out of this eastern town on Wednesday, trying to regain territory lost in a retreat to Muammar Gaddafi's forces, as anger mounted over alleged lack of air strikes by NATO. Gaddafi's forces pushed the rebels at least 40 kms east of the oil port of Brega on Tuesday as an inconclusive see-saw conflict continued along the Mediterranean coastal road. Pick-up trucks loaded with machineguns and rocket launchers headed west from Ajdabiyah while several families fleeing the fighting in cars loaded with their belongings passed them in the opposite direction. Hossam Ahmed, a defector from Gaddafi's army, said the frontline was 40-60 km west of Adjabiyah, saying Tuesday's retreat "wasn't a full withdrawal, it's back and forth. Ajdabiyah, gateway to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, is about 80 km east of Brega. Like other rebels at Ajdabiyah's western gate, Ahmed expressed frustration at the lack of NATO action. "There have been no air strikes. We hear the sound but they don't bomb anything," he said. Another rebel, Khaled al-Obeidi said: "What has NATO done, what has NATO bombed?" Journalists were banned on Wednesday from heading west from Ajdabiyah, making it difficult to assess the fighting. "Can you go with Gaddafi's militias and do interviews with them and photograph the tanks? Well now you can't with us either," said al-Obeidi. Rebel army leader Abdel Fattah Younes has accused NATO of being too slow to order airstrikes, saying Gaddafi's forces have been allowed to slaughter civilians in the besieged and isolated western city of Misrata. NATO denies the pace of air strikes has abated since it took over from a coalition led by the United States, Britain and France on March 31. The conflict in the east has reached stalemate with Western air power preventing Gaddafi landing a knockout blow and the rebels' rag-tag army unable to push closer towards Tripoli.
