NATO denied again today that air raids on Tripoli were aimed at killing Muammar Gaddafi and said it did not know whether he was dead or alive.
Brigadier General Claudio Gabellini insisted that the latest bombing raids in Libya as usual were aimed at command and control centres used by the regime to direct attacks against civilians.
"All NATO targets are military targets, which means that the targets we've been hitting, and it happened also last night in Tripoli, are command and control bunkers," Gabellini told reporters.
"NATO is not targeting individuals," he said via videolink from the operation's headquarters in Naples, Italy.
Asked whether Gaddafi was still alive, the Italian NATO general said: "We don't have any evidence. We don't know what Gaddafi is doing right now."
He added later: "To tell you the truth, we are not really interested in what he's doing. Our mandate is to protect civilians from attacks or from the threats of attacks, so we are not looking after individuals."
Since NATO took over military operations on March 31, jets have conducted almost 6,000 sorties, including more than 2,300 strike missions, although bombs are not dropped in all of those missions, official figures showed.
In the besieged western city of Misrata alone, Gabellini said NATO has struck more than 30 military targets since May 2, including a dozen main battle tanks, three roket-launcher systems, three self-propelled artillery pieces and 15 ammunition storage sites.
Yesterday, NATO struck three command and control facilities around Tripoli as well as one tank and one command and control node in Misrata, alliance figures showed.
It also hit 15 ammunition storages in the vicinity of Mizdah and another two in Sirte.
Brigadier General Claudio Gabellini insisted that the latest bombing raids in Libya as usual were aimed at command and control centres used by the regime to direct attacks against civilians.
"All NATO targets are military targets, which means that the targets we've been hitting, and it happened also last night in Tripoli, are command and control bunkers," Gabellini told reporters.
"NATO is not targeting individuals," he said via videolink from the operation's headquarters in Naples, Italy.
Asked whether Gaddafi was still alive, the Italian NATO general said: "We don't have any evidence. We don't know what Gaddafi is doing right now."
He added later: "To tell you the truth, we are not really interested in what he's doing. Our mandate is to protect civilians from attacks or from the threats of attacks, so we are not looking after individuals."
Since NATO took over military operations on March 31, jets have conducted almost 6,000 sorties, including more than 2,300 strike missions, although bombs are not dropped in all of those missions, official figures showed.
In the besieged western city of Misrata alone, Gabellini said NATO has struck more than 30 military targets since May 2, including a dozen main battle tanks, three roket-launcher systems, three self-propelled artillery pieces and 15 ammunition storage sites.
Yesterday, NATO struck three command and control facilities around Tripoli as well as one tank and one command and control node in Misrata, alliance figures showed.
It also hit 15 ammunition storages in the vicinity of Mizdah and another two in Sirte.
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