Libya’s army chief of staff, Mohammed Ali Ahmed Al-Haddad, has died in a plane crash shortly after departing Ankara, Turkey, Four other people were also on board the aircraft. According to Libyas internationally recognized prime minister.
“This 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,” Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah said in a statement.
He said those on board also included Libya’s ground forces commander, the head of the military manufacturing authority, an adviser to the chief of staff, and a photographer from the chief of staff’s office.
Turkey’s Interior Minister, Ali Yerlikaya, said on X that the Dassault Falcon 50 jet departed Ankara’s Esenboga Airport at 1710 GMT bound for Tripoli, but lost radio contact at 1752 GMT. Authorities later located the wreckage near Kesikkavak village in Ankara’s Haymana district.
Yerlikaya added that the aircraft had requested an emergency landing while flying over Haymana, but contact could not be re-established.
The cause of the crash was not immediately known. Turkey’s defence ministry had earlier announced Haddad’s visit, noting that he met with Defence Minister Yasar Guler, his Turkish counterpart Selcuk Bayraktaroglu, and other senior military officials.
The incident came a day after Turkey’s parliament approved a two-year extension of the mandate for Turkish troops deployed in Libya.
A NATO member, Turkey has provided military and political backing to Libya’s Tripoli-based, internationally recognised government. In 2020, Ankara sent military personnel to train and support Libyan forces and later signed a maritime demarcation agreement—an accord contested by Egypt and Greece. In 2022, Turkey and Libya also reached a preliminary deal on energy exploration, which both Egypt and Greece oppose.
More recently, however, Turkey has adjusted its approach under its “One Libya” policy, expanding engagement with Libya’s eastern faction as well.
