n the past 24 hours, pilots loyal to Muammar Qaddafi have peppered rebel positions on the eastern front of the Libyan war, creating few casualties but feeding the growing unease of an uprising that has stalled.

“If we didn’t have to fear the planes, we’d be advancing much more quickly,” claims Mohammed Abdel Salim, one of hundreds regular army soldiers who defected from Qaddafi’s regime in mid-February and is now helping to organize the civilian militia just west of Ras Lanuf. “We completely reject foreign troops here, but we want help against his planes.”

The increasing tempo of bombing raids around Ras Lanuf, an oil export and refining hub about 150 miles from Benghazi, the rebellion’s de facto capital, came as NATO planners met in Brussels to consider the practicalities of extending a no-fly zone over Libya.

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