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31-12-2025
ANKARA: Turkiye has held a military ceremony to honour a group of Libyan officials, including military chief Mohammed Ali Ahmed al-Haddad, who were killed in a plane crash over Turkish territory earlier this week.
The ceremony, held on Sunday at Murted airbase outside the capital, Ankara, honored al-Haddad and four other military officers who were in Turkiye for high-level defence talks before the crash on Tuesday.
Turkiye’s military chief Selcuk Bayraktaroglu and Defence Minister Yasar Guler were in attendance at the ceremony. The remains of the Libyan officials will be transported back home, where an official funeral will be held.
The aircraft carrying the Libyan delegation went down on Tuesday shortly after taking off from Ankara, following what Libyan officials said was a technical malfunction. All those on board, including three crew members, were killed.
Al-Haddad, Libya’s highest-ranking military officer, was a key figure in the United Nations-brokered efforts to unify the country’s divided armed forces. His death drew condolences even from the rival factions.
“Haddad was this strong, charismatic leader who always [sought] peace in the country,” said journalist Malik Traina, reporting from al-Haddad’s hometown of Misrata, Libya. “He was a man of peace, well-respected across the country, even among people he fought against.”
Khalifa Haftar, head of eastern Libya’s rival administration whose forces al-Haddad opposed during a 2019 advance on western Libya was among those who extended sympathies. In a statement, Haftar expressed “deep sorrow over this tragic loss” and offered condolences to al-Haddad’s family, tribe, and city, as well as “to all the Libyan people”.
Following the ceremony in Turkiye, five coffins draped in Libyan national flags were loaded onto a plane for repatriation to Libya. Turkiye’s military chief Bayraktaroglu was also on the plane, state-run news agency TRT reported.
Libya plunged into chaos after the country’s 2011 uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi. The country is split, with rival administrations in the east and the west, backed by an array of rogue militias and different foreign governments. Turkiye has been the main backer of Libya’s government in the west, but has recently taken steps to improve ties with the eastern-based administration as well.
Traina said it will be “extremely difficult” for Libya’s Western government “to find someone as respected” to replace al-Haddad, who had chaired a United Nations-backed truce committee. “They are extremely big shoes to fill.”
The Libyan army’s 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 takeoff, but then lost contact.
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.
General al-Haddad was Libya’s chief of the General Staff, the highest-ranking military officer in the country’s armed forces.
General al-Haddad worked within the United Nations-recognized Government of National Unity (GNU) in Tripoli to bring together competing armed factions. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
