ANKARA — Libya’s Army Chief of Staff, Mohammed Ali Ahmed al-Haddad, and four others were killed in an air crash near Turkey’s capital city, Ankara.
Libya’s Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah termed it a tragic accident, stating that the crash happened Tuesday evening while the officials were returning from a visit to Turkey.
He said that the other people killed in the crash were the ground forces chief of staff, Al-Fitouri Gharibil, the director of the Military Manufacturing Authority, Mahmoud Al-Qatawi, an adviser to al-Haddad, Muhammad Al-Asawi Diab, and a military photographer, Muhammad Omar Ahmed Mahjoub.

A senior Turkish official said that three crew members were also killed in the crash, adding that the aircraft had sought an emergency landing after reporting an electrical malfunction. Initial reports from the investigation rule out any sabotage to the Libyan Army Chief’s plane crash; the initial cause is technical failure.
Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said signal with the business jet was lost at 20:52 local time (17:52 GMT) —about 42 minutes after it took off from Ankara's airport.
The Tripoli-bound jet had issued an emergency landing request before contact was lost. The aircraft's wreckage was later found south-west of Ankara, and its voice recorder and black box had been recovered.
An investigation is under way into what caused the crash.
In a post on X, Yerlikaya wrote that police had spotted the debris near the village of Kesikkavak, in the Haymana district.
In Libya, Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, the prime minister of the country's Government of National Unity (GNU), said he had received news of the deaths of Gen Haddad and other senior Libyan military officials on board the jet.
The prime minister called it a "great loss" for the nation, saying Libya had "lost men who served their country with sincerity and dedication".
Gen Haddad and his team had been in Turkey for talks aimed at further strengthening military and security co-operation between the two countries. He had met his Turkish counterpart and other military commanders during his visit.
Turkey has played an increasingly dominant role in Libya after intervening in 2019 to prevent an army from the east of the country driving out the internationally-recognized government in Tripoli, and has built close political, military and economic ties. — Agencies