Ankara/Tripoli, December 24,2025: Libyan army chief of staff Mohammed Ali Ahmed Al-Haddad was killed on Tuesday after the aircraft carrying him crashed shortly after departing from Turkiye’s capital, Ankara. Four other people on board the jet also lost their lives, Libyan and Turkish authorities confirmed.
Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah described the incident as a “tragic and painful” loss for the country. “This grave loss is a great loss for the nation, for the military institution, and for all the people,” he said in a statement, adding that the crash occurred while the delegation was returning from an official visit to Ankara.
According to Dbeibah, those killed alongside Al-Haddad included the commander of Libya’s ground forces, the director of the military manufacturing authority, an adviser to the chief of staff, and a photographer from the chief of staff’s office.
Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said the Dassault Falcon 50 jet took off from Ankara’s Esenboga Airport at 1710 GMT en route to Tripoli, but radio contact was lost at 1752 GMT. He said the aircraft’s wreckage was later found near Kesikkavak village in Ankara’s Haymana district. The jet had reportedly requested an emergency landing while flying over the area, but communication could not be re-established.
The cause of the crash was not immediately known. Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said a formal investigation into the incident had been launched.
The Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (GNU) said Prime Minister Dbeibah had directed the defence minister to dispatch an official delegation to Ankara to follow developments related to the crash. Walid Ellafi, the GNU’s state minister for political affairs and communication, told local media that the aircraft was a leased Maltese jet, adding that authorities currently lacked sufficient information about its ownership and technical history, which would be examined as part of the investigation.
Turkiye’s defence ministry had earlier announced Al-Haddad’s visit, stating that he met Turkish Defence Minister Yasar Guler and senior Turkish military commanders during his stay.
Libya has remained politically divided since 2014, with the western part of the country governed by the GNU under Dbeibah, while the east is controlled by forces loyal to Field Marshal Khalifa Belqasim Haftar, according to the Washington-based Stimson Center.
