Breaking news: Libya's army chief and a staff member have tragically lost their lives in a plane crash near Ankara, Turkey. The incident has sent shockwaves through the region. We'll bring you the latest updates and details on this developing story. #globalinsights #LibyaArmy #PlaneCrash #Ankara #BreakingNews
00:00Libya mourns military chief Muhammad Ali Ahmed Al-Haddad, who was seen as a unifying figure amid deep political divisions.
00:08Breaking news. Libya's military chief of staff and several senior officers have been killed after their plane crashed near Ankara, following reports of a technical malfunction.
00:18Muhammad Ali Ahmed Al-Haddad, the chief of general staff of Libya's internationally recognized, Tripoli-based government, was traveling aboard a private jet that departed Ankara late Tuesday after meetings with Turkish officials, including Defense Minister Yasar Guler and his Turkish military counterpart.
00:37Shortly after takeoff, the crew of the Dassault Falcon 50 reported an electrical fault and requested permission to return to Ankara's Esenboga airport for an emergency landing.
00:47Contact with the aircraft was lost about 20 minutes later, at 8.52 p.m. local time, when the jet was approximately 85 kilometers southwest of the capital.
00:58Turkish authorities confirmed that everyone on board was killed.
01:02The victims included four members of Al-Haddad's delegation, among them Al-Faturi Grebel, the head of Libya's ground forces, as well as three crew members.
01:11A witness near the town of Heymana told local media that a powerful explosion shook the ground shortly before 9 p.m., followed by flashes of light in the sky.
01:21Emergency teams later located the wreckage across a three-square-kilometer area.
01:27Search crews recovered the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder early Wednesday, as investigators continued to examine the crash site.
01:35The visit to Turkey came just one day after the Turkish parliament extended a mandate allowing Turkish troops to operate in Libya, under a 2019 security agreement with the Tripoli-based government of National Unity.
01:49Turkey has been a key backer of the UN-recognized government, providing training and military support in its conflict with the eastern-based Libyan National Army, led by Khalifa Haftar and supported by Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and others.
02:03Turkish assistance was widely viewed as decisive in halting Haftar's assault on Tripoli in 2019 and 2020, one of the bloodiest phases of Libya's civil war.
02:15Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeba described the crash as a tragic accident in a statement on social media.
02:22Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke with Dbeba on Wednesday to offer condolences, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency.
02:31Al-Haddad, who rose to prominence in 2020, played a central role in strengthening Libya's military ties with Turkey and other countries.
02:40He was also involved in UN-backed efforts to reunify Libya's fractured armed forces, holding talks in recent years with his eastern counterpart.
02:49A Libyan delegation of 22 people, including family members and defense officials, has since arrived in Turkey, as a criminal investigation into the crash continues.
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