By Tuvan Gumrukcu and Ahmed Elumami
ANKARA/TRIPOLI, Dec 23 (Reuters) – The Libyan army’s chief of staff, Mohammed Ali Ahmed Al-Haddad, died in a plane crash on Tuesday after leaving Turkey’s capital Ankara, the prime minister of Libya’s internationally recognised government said, adding that four others were on the jet as well.
“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 the commander of Libya’s ground forces, the director of its military manufacturing authority, an adviser to the chief of staff, and a photographer from the chief of staff’s office were also on the aircraft.
Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on social media platform X that the plane had taken off from Ankara’s Esenboga Airport at 1710 GMT en route to Tripoli, and that radio contact was lost at 1752 GMT. He said authorities found the plane’s wreckage near the Kesikkavak village in Ankara’s Haymana district.
He 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.
The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.
Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said an investigation into the crash was under way.
The Tripoli-based Government of National Unity said in a statement that the prime minister directed the defence minister to send an official delegation to Ankara to follow up on proceedings.
Walid Ellafi, state minister of political affairs and communication for the GNU, told broadcaster Libya Alahrar that it was not clear when a crash report would be ready, but that the jet was a leased Maltese aircraft. He added that officials did not have “sufficient information regarding its ownership or technical history,” but said this would be investigated.
Libya’s U.N.-recognised Government of National Unity announced official mourning across the country for three days.
Turkey’s defence ministry had announced Haddad’s visit earlier, saying he had met with Turkish Defence Minister Yasar Guler and Turkish counterpart Selcuk Bayraktaroglu, along with other Turkish military commanders.
The crash occurred a day after Turkey’s parliament passed a decision to extend the mandate of Turkish soldiers’ deployment in Libya by two more years.
NATO member Turkey has militarily and politically supported Libya’s 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.
In 2022, Ankara and Tripoli also signed a preliminary accord on energy exploration, which Egypt and Greece also oppose.
However, Turkey has recently switched course under its “One Libya” policy, ramping up contacts with Libya’s eastern faction as well.
(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Ece Toksabay in Ankara, Ahmed Elumami in Tripoli, and Jaidaa Taha and Muhammad Al Gebaly in Cairo; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Matthew Lewis)
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