The Libyan army\u2019s Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Mohammed Ali Ahmed al-Haddad, has been killed in a plane crash in Turkiye while returning from an official visit to Ankara.<\/p>\n
Turkish officials said the private aircraft, which was heading back to Tripoli on Tuesday, requested an emergency landing due to an electrical failure just minutes after takeoff, but then lost contact.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n The crash, which also killed four senior Libyan military officials and three crew members, has sent shockwaves across Libya, where General al-Haddad was seen as a unifying figure amid deep political divisions. The Libyan government has announced three days of national mourning.<\/p>\n Here is what we know so far:<\/p>\n General al-Haddad was Libya\u2019s chief of the General Staff, the highest-ranking military officer in the country\u2019s armed forces.<\/p>\n General al-Haddad worked within the United Nations-recognised Government of National Unity (GNU) in Tripoli to bring together competing armed factions.<\/p>\n Al Jazeera\u2019s Malik Traina said people in Libya were mourning al-Haddad, whom he said was a key figure in efforts to unify the country\u2019s fractured military. \u201cHe really was someone who tried to build up the military institutions, especially in western Libya, a place that is divided with powerful armed groups and militias controlling vast areas of land,\u201d Traina, reporting from Tripoli, said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have powerful armed groups, militias controlling different parts of land. They hold a huge influence on the government. He refused to let these militias hold sway on the government,\u201d Traina added, and was seen as \u201csomeone that people could rally behind and support to try to bring some kind of unity to Libya.\u201d<\/p>\n General al-Haddad had served in that post since 2020 and was seen as a key figure in efforts to unify Libya\u2019s divided military structures, a crucial element of broader attempts to stabilise the country, which descended into chaos following the toppling of its long-term leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.<\/p>\n Al Jazeera\u2019s Traina said General al-Haddad was one of the first military officials who joined the rebel forces in the revolution that toppled Gaddafi.<\/p>\n Libya is currently divided between the internationally recognised government based in Tripoli and the rival administration in the east led by military commander Khalifa Haftar.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was a very charismatic and strong leader. General Mohammed was someone who was respected by all sides,\u201d Al Jazeera\u2019s Traina said. \u201cHe was someone who believed in the rule of law, always talked about values of democracy, and wanted to transition Libya into civilian rule.\u201d<\/p>\n Al-Haddad\u2019s death is being mourned in the eastern part of Libya governed by a rival administration, including Haftar, who expressed sorrow and offered his condolences.<\/p>\n During his Turkiye trip, al-Haddad held talks in Ankara with Turkish Defence Minister Yasar Guler, and his Turkish military counterpart, Selcuk Bayraktaroglu. Ankara has cultivated close military and economic ties with the Tripoli-based administration, but recently, Ankara has moved to strengthen relations with the eastern administration led by Haftar.<\/p>\n Burhanettin Duran, Turkiye\u2019s head of communications, said the Dassault Falcon 50 jet departed Ankara Esenboga Airport at 17:17 GMT on Tuesday, bound for Tripoli.<\/p>\n At 17:33 GMT, it notified air traffic control of an electrical malfunction and declared an emergency, according to his statement. The jet was 37 years old, according to flight tracking site Flightradar24.<\/p>\n Controllers directed the aircraft back towards Esenboga and initiated emergency protocols, but it vanished from radar at 17:36 GMT while descending to land, and communication was lost, Duran said.<\/p>\n Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya had earlier reported that the plane requested an emergency landing while flying over Ankara\u2019s Haymana district.<\/p>\n He added that the wreckage was later located near Kesikkavak village in the area. Search and rescue teams reached the crash site after operations were launched by the Interior Ministry.<\/p>\n Investigations into the cause are continuing with the participation of all relevant agencies, Duran said. Turkiye has appointed four prosecutors to lead the probe, and Yerlikaya noted that 408 personnel were deployed for the search and recovery effort.<\/p>\n A group of military officials from Libya is carrying out inspections at the crash site, according to Turkish state news agency Anadolu.<\/p>\n Yes. All people on board died in the crash. In addition to al-Haddad, seven others died in the crash, including four senior Libyan military officials and three crew members.<\/p>\n Among the Libyan officials killed were:<\/p>\n Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah described the incident as a \u201ctragic loss\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThis great tragedy is a great loss for the nation, the military establishment, and all the people,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have lost men who served their country with sincerity and dedication and were an example of discipline, responsibility, and national commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n In a statement from the eastern Libyan armed forces, commander Haftar expressed \u201cdeep sorrow over this tragic loss\u201d and offered condolences to General al-Haddad\u2019s family, tribe, and city, as well as \u201cto all the Libyan people\u201d.<\/p>\n In a statement, Libya\u2019s Government of National Unity announced a three-day mourning period, during which flags will be flown at half-staff across all state institutions, and all official ceremonies and celebrations will be suspended.<\/p>\n Austria\u2019s former defence attache to Libya, Wolfgang Pusztai, said the death of al-Haddad was \u201cvery significant\u201d and a major blow for Dbeibah.<\/p>\n \u201cAl-Haddad hails from Misrata, an important merchant city about three hours east of Tripoli, just like Dbeibah, and the key role of al-Haddad was to ensure the loyalty of the mighty militias of the city of Misrata to the government,\u201d Pusztai told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n \u201cMisrata is the most important military power in western Libya, and this might really trigger some problems for Dbeibah, if this loyalty is broken in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n Libya\u2019s Presidential Council has appointed General Salah Eddine al-Namrush as the acting chief of staff for the Libyan army until General al-Haddad\u2019s replacement is announced.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s extremely big shoes to fill. It is really going be very difficult for authorities to find somebody as charismatic and strong who can unify the country like Mohammed al-Haddad,\u201d Al Jazeera\u2019s Traina said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Libyan army\u2019s Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Mohammed Ali Ahmed al-Haddad, has been killed in a plane crash in Turkiye while returning from an official visit to Ankara. Turkish officials said the private aircraft, which was heading back to Tripoli on Tuesday, requested an emergency landing due to an electrical failure just minutes after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-explained"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
Who was Mohammed Ali Ahmed al-Haddad?<\/h2>\n
![\"In](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ap_694b07ba102d2-1766524858.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80\")
What do we know about the plane crash?<\/h2>\n
![\"INTERACTIVE](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/INTERACTIVE-Libyan-army-chief-killed-in-plane-crash-1766566241.png?quality=80\")
Were other people killed in the crash?<\/h2>\n
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What are the reactions to al-Haddad\u2019s death?<\/h2>\n
What\u2019s next?<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"