The Libyan army\u2019s chief of staff, Mohammed Ali Ahmed al-Haddad, has been killed in a plane crash after leaving Turkey\u2019s capital, Ankara.<\/p>\n
The prime minister of Libya\u2019s internationally recognised government confirmed on Tuesday evening that Mohammed Ali Ahmed al-Haddad had died and that four others were on the jet with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis followed a tragic and painful incident while they were returning from an official trip from the Turkish city of Ankara. This grave loss is a great loss for the nation, for the military institution, and for all the people,\u201d the Libyan prime minister, Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, said.<\/p>\n
Rescue operations following the crash of a Libya-bound business jet carrying Libyan military chief Muhammed Ali Ahmed al-Haddad.
Photograph: Adem Altan\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
He said the commander of Libya\u2019s ground forces, the director of its military manufacturing authority, an adviser to the chief of staff, and a photographer from the chief of staff\u2019s office were also on the aircraft.<\/p>\n
The Turkish interior minister, Ali Yerlikaya, said on X that the plane had taken off from Ankara\u2019s Esenbo\u011fa airport at 17.10 GMT en route to Tripoli, and that radio contact was lost at 17.52 GMT.<\/p>\n
Debris pieces, believed to belong to the aircraft, are found during a search and rescue operation after a Libya-bound private jet carrying the Libyan army chief lost contact with the control tower in Turkey on 23 December 2025. Photograph: Anadolu\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
He said authorities found the plane\u2019s wreckage near the Kesikkavak village in Ankara\u2019s Haymana district.<\/p>\n
Yerlikaya added that the Dassault Falcon 50-type jet had made a request for an emergency landing while over Haymana, but that no contact was established.<\/p>\n
The head of the presidency\u2019s communications directorate, Burhanettin Duran, said later on X that the emergency landing request was made because of \u201can electrical failure\u201d. \u201cA private jet carrying Libyan Chief of General Staff Mohammed al-Haddad, four members of his entourage and three crew members reported an emergency to the air traffic control centre due to an electrical failure, asking for an emergency landing,\u201d he said in the post.<\/p>\n
Turkey\u2019s defence ministry had announced Haddad\u2019s visit earlier, saying he had met with the Turkish defence minister, Ya\u015far G\u00fcler, and Turkish counterpart, Sel\u00e7uk Bayraktaro\u011flu, along with other Turkish military commanders.<\/p>\n
Libya\u2019s ambassador to Turkey, Mustafa al-Kulaib, receives information at the scene as search and rescue operations continue. Photograph: Anadolu\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
The crash occurred a day after Turkey\u2019s parliament passed a decision to extend the mandate of Turkish soldiers\u2019 deployment in Libya by two more years.<\/p>\n
Nato member Turkey has militarily and politically supported Libya\u2019s Tripoli-based, internationally recognised government. In 2020, it sent military personnel there to train and support its government and later reached a maritime demarcation accord, which has been disputed by Egypt and Greece.<\/p>\n
In 2022, Ankara and Tripoli also signed a preliminary accord on energy exploration, which Egypt and Greece also oppose.<\/p>\n
However, Turkey has recently switched course under its \u201cOne Libya\u201d policy, ramping up contacts with Libya\u2019s eastern faction as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Libyan army\u2019s chief of staff, Mohammed Ali Ahmed al-Haddad, has been killed in a plane crash after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[748,393,4884,12,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-651725","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-northern-ireland","13":"tag-scotland","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115772503114196931","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}