Libya’s army chief of staff, Mohammed Ali Ahmed Al-Haddad, was killed in a plane crash shortly after departing Ankara, Libyan and Turkish officials said, confirming the deaths of all five people on board. Turkish officials said the Dassault Falcon 50 jet requested an emergency landing while flying over central Turkey, but radio contact was lost shortly afterward. A senior Libyan official said the aircraft was a leased jet registered in Malta, adding that its ownership and technical history would be examined as part of the probe. The crash came just one day after Turkey’s parliament voted to extend the deployment of Turkish troops in Libya for another two years. In recent years, Turkey has sought to broaden its engagement in Libya under a “One Libya” policy, increasing contacts with rival factions in the country’s east.

Source: Libya Today December 25, 2025 20:14 UTC