Libyan army chief and seven others killed in plane crash

TT

Published 2025-12-23 20.31

 

Libyan army chief Mohammad Ali al-Haddad met with his Turkish counterpart Selcuk Bayraktaroglu in Ankara. Photo: Turkish Ministry of Defense/AP/TT

The wreckage of a private jet carrying the Libyan army chief and other military leaders has been found outside the Turkish capital Ankara.

All on board – a total of eight people – died in the crash.

Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah confirms that General Mohammad Ali al-Haddad and four of his associates died on Tuesday. In a statement on Facebook, he calls it “a great loss” for Libya.

The plane lost contact with air traffic control at 18:52, Swedish time, shortly after taking off from Ankara's Esenboga airport to fly to the Libyan capital Tripoli.

Other passengers included the commander of Libya's ground forces, an advisor to the army chief, a military photographer and another high-ranking military officer. The crew consisted of three people.

Technical problem

A distress call was made when the plane was over Haymana, just over seventy kilometers south of Ankara, but air traffic control was unable to reestablish contact, writes Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya on X.

Several Turkish TV channels show images of an explosion from the area where the plane was at the time of the distress call.

- All contact with the aircraft was lost about half an hour after takeoff from Ankara airport due to a technical problem, Libyan Communications Minister Walid Ellafi tells Libyan TV.

- We are waiting for the conclusions of the Turkish investigation.

Army Chief Mohammad Ali al-Haddad had been visiting Turkey for meetings with his Turkish counterpart Selcuk Bayraktaroglu and Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Güler.

Divided country

Libya has been in more or less chaos since the overthrow of dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

The country was divided in 2014 between a government in Tripoli in the west and a power center in Tobruk in the east under warlord Khalifa Haftar. A peace process was launched with the support of the UN in 2020.

Turkey has close ties with the UN-backed government in Tripoli and provides both military and economic support.