As Muammar Gaddafi’s son was found in Niger, the whereabouts of the fugitive leader were still unknown.

As Muammar Gaddafi’s son was found in Niger, the whereabouts of the fugitive leader were still unknown.

Saadi Gaddafi, 38, the third of Gaddafi’s seven sons, was among 32 officials of the ousted regime, three of them top generals, who have fled through the desert to neighboring Niger this month.
He had been put up in the governor's residence in the capital Niamey with eight close associates of his father after they crossed into Niger on Sunday.

For its part, Niger assured that Saadi, who commanded an elite army unit after a brief career as a professional footballer in Italy, was in the custody of Nigerien security forces.

HUNTING FOR GADDAFI
On the other hand, NATO said on Wednesday that its aircraft had hit nine targets around Sirte, seven around Waddan and one around Zillah, another oasis town to its east, in its latest raids.
The western alliance said it had no idea whether Gaddafi himself had also fled his country.

However, the spokesman for NATO’s Libya mission, said that NATO had received, at "various points" in the conflict, intelligence confirming that Gaddafi was still in Libya, but that his whereabouts were now a mystery.
"To be frank we don't know if he has left the country," Colonel Roland Lavoie, told reporters on Tuesday.
"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."

Gaddafi has only been heard from in audio recordings broadcast by the Syrian-based Al-Rai television. And his most recent statement was read out by the channel's owner on Monday.
 Lavoie stressed that it was not NATO's mission to hunt down the fugitive former strongman.
"We are not in the business of targeting or chasing Kadhafi," he said.

But the Canadian colonel said Gaddafi's options were increasingly limited as forces loyal to Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) close in on his remaining strongholds,
"Essentially the area of operation of Gaddafi is shrinking."

RECOGNITION OF NTC
Also on Tuesday, the World Bank became the latest international organization to recognize the victorious rebels' NTC but South Africa said that the African Union had yet to decide on whether to give it Libya's seat in the continental bloc.
"The AU as an organization has not recognized the NTC," South African President Jacob Zuma told parliament ahead of a meeting in Pretoria Wednesday of the bloc's panel on Libya.

South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said that Wednesday's meeting of panel -- which also includes the leaders of Uganda, Mauritania, Mali and Congo-Brazzaville -- would focus on the AU's calls for an inclusive government in Tripoli.