NATO does not know whether Muammar Gaddafi is still in Libya as the fallen Libyan leader's son Saadi is being held under house arrest at a government residence in Niger.
Colonel Roland Lavoie, the NATO mission's spokesman, said the alliance had received, at "various points" in the conflict, intelligence confirming that Gaddafi was still in Libya, but that today his whereabouts remained a mystery.
"To be frank we don't know if he has left the country," Lavoie told reporters via videolink from the operation's headquarters in Naples, Italy.
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"He has not made public appearances in the country for a while and this raises questions about his whereabouts. But we don't have sure information about where he is at this time," he said.
Gaddafi has only been heard from in audio recordings broadcast by a friendly channel, Syria-based Arrai Oruba television. And his most recent statement was read out by the channel's owner on Monday.
While Gaddafi's location remains the source of heavy speculation, members of Gaddafi's family and senior regime officials have fled to neighbouring Algeria and Niger in recent days.
Lavoie repeated NATO's position that it was not trying to track down Gaddafi, as he insisted the alliance was given a UN mandate to protect civilians from attacks.
"We are not in the business of targeting or chasing Gaddafi," he said.
His loyalists, meanwhile, are struggling to keep a grip on their last bastions, with the area under their control shrinking by the day, Lavoie said.
Pro-Gaddafi fighters are concentrated in a triangle running from Bani Walid, a town southeast of Tripoli, to the coastal town of Sirte further east and the far-off desert town of Sebha in the south, Lavoie said.
But advances made by rebel forces in the last two days cut off access to the Sirte-Bani Walid axis and loyalist forces' control of Sebha is no longer assured, he said.
"Essentially the area of operation of Gaddafi is shrinking," the Canadian colonel said.
Lavoie also dismissed an attack by Gaddafi fighters on the eastern oil hub of Ras Lanuf which appeared to be either a commando raid or an act of sabotage, but did not represent a territorial gain for former regime forces.
GADDAFI SON 'UNDER HOUSE ARREST'
Gaddafi's son, Saadi, who arrived in Niger at the weekend, is being held under house arrest at a government residence, the US State Department said on Tuesday.
"Our understanding is, like the others, he's being detained in a state guest house and that it is appropriate that Niger and the TNC work through this together," spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters in Washington, referring to the National Transitional Council, Libya's interim government.
"It's essentially a house arrest in this government facility, is our understanding," she said.
Saadi, 38, the third of Gaddafi's seven sons, arrived in Niger, one of the west African countries that benefited the most from Gaddafi's largesse, on Sunday in a convoy alongside other members of the toppled regime.
Seen as something of a playboy, Saadi was hired in 2003 to play for Italian first division football club Perugia but barely kicked a ball when he was suspended after testing positive for nandrolone, an anabolic steroid.
He renounced his football career the following year to join the Libyan army, where he led an elite unit.
