The opposition claims making gains along a long-deadlocked front near the eastern town of Ajdabiyah. BRUSSELS/TRIPOLI: NATO denied again Tuesday that air raids on Tripoli were aimed at killing Muammar Gaddafi and said it did not know whether he was dead or alive. Brig. Gen. Claudio Gabellini insisted that the latest bombing raids in Libya as usual were aimed at command and control centers 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.” In a one-two punch against Gaddafi's forces, NATO warplanes struck a command center in Tripoli after pounding regime targets around the besieged port of Misrata. Rebels hoped the stepped-up attacks could help extend some of their biggest advances to date, including a major outward push from Misrata. The opposition also said it made gains along a long-deadlocked front near the eastern town of Ajdabiyah. The rebels' military spokesman, Col. Ahmed Bani, said opposition forces had pushed Gaddafi's troops out of rocket range on the west side of Misrata and dislodged them from the airport after two days of battles, raising the prospect that the siege could be broken. Bani said rebels from Misrata and Zlitan, 35 miles west, had joined up to fight in close-range combat that rendered the regime forces' long-range rockets useless. Speaking in the rebel headquarters city of Benghazi, Bani said Gaddafi's brigades were pushed about 10 miles back from Misrata's airport. “The picture is looking good for us,” he said. In another boost to the opposition, the US State Department said the first load of non-lethal American military aid for the rebels landed Tuesday at the port in their headquarters city, Benghazi. Spokesman Mark Toner said the shipment consisted of more than 10,000 meals, with further shipments of medical supplies, boots and protective gear to arrive shortly. The delivery came ahead of planned meetings in Washington this week between US officials and the head of the opposition Transitional National Council.
