Libya’s highest-ranking army officer, Lt. Gen. Mohamed Ali Ahmed al-Haddad, and four other Libyan military officials were killed in a plane crash in Turkey on Tuesday night, according to the Libyan prime minister, Abdul Hamid Dbeiba.
General al-Haddad, the Libyan military’s chief of staff, had been meeting in Turkey with his counterpart, the Turkish defense minister and other military officials on Tuesday, the Turkish military said. He later left in a private jet to return to Libya, according to Turkey’s Interior Ministry.
In the evening, Turkish officials said that the plane he and four other passengers had been traveling in lost radio contact shortly after taking off from Ankara, the Turkish capital.
The wreckage of the aircraft, a Falcon 50 jet, was found in the Haymana district of Turkey, about 40 miles southwest of central Ankara. Turkish television on Tuesday night showed crews searching the site, where pieces of the plane were scattered all around.
There was no immediate statement from Libyan or Turkish officials about the cause of the crash.
General al-Haddad held the highest position within the Libyan armed forces under the internationally recognized government in Tripoli, the capital. Appointed in 2020, he led efforts to organize and unify the Libyan Army under the authority of the official state institutions.
But Libya has been divided for more than a decade between rival factions that have battled intermittently for control, and much of the country is controlled by a rival government and militia, based in Tobruk.
Also on the plane with General al-Haddad were other high-ranking Libyan military officials: Maj. Gen. Al-Fitouri Ghribel, chief of staff of the land forces; Brig. Mahmoud Al-Qattouwi, director of the Military Manufacturing Authority; Mohamed Al-Asawi Diab, adviser to the chief of the general staff of the Libyan Army; and Mohamed Omar Ahmed Mahjoub, a photographer at the news media office of the chief of the general staff.
Turkish prosecutors have begun an investigation into the crash, Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said on social media.
Ephrat Livni is a Times reporter covering breaking news around the world. She is based in Washington.
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