The Government of Libya confirmed this Tuesday the death of Mohamed Ali Ahmed al Hadad, head of the African country’s Armed Forces, according to an official statement shared on Facebook. Al Hadad had traveled to Ankara to meet with the Turkish Defense Minister, Yasar Guler. Hours after the meeting, the Turkish authorities announced that communication with the plane in which the senior official was traveling back to Libyan territory had been lost.
The Turkish Minister of the Interior, Ali Yerlikaya, has detailed that the aircraft had taken off at 8:10 p.m. local time (6:10 p.m. time in mainland Spain) and that communication was lost around 8:52 p.m., just a few minutes after the plane crew requested an emergency landing near the town of Haymana, southwest of Ankara. “However, contact could not be restored,” Yerlikaya said in a publication on his X account. The remains of the device, a Dassault Falcon 50, have appeared in the nearby village of Kesikkavak, the official has detailed, although he has not specified the cause of the accident.
Abdulhamid Ddeibah, the prime minister of Libya’s unity government, recognized by the United Nations, has reported that Al Hadad was traveling with four other people: the chief of the General Staff of the Land Forces, Al Fituri Ghraibil; the director of the military manufacturing authority, Mahmud al Qatawi; the advisor to the head of the Army, Mohamed al Asawi Diab; and press office photographer Mohamed Omar Ahmed Mahyub.
“It is with great sadness and regret that we receive the news of the death of the Chief of the General Staff of the Libyan Army, Lieutenant General Mohamed al Hadad, and his companions,” Ddeibah said in the statement. “This great tragedy is a great loss for the nation, the military establishment and all the people, since we have lost men who served their country with sincerity and dedication and were an example of discipline, responsibility and national commitment,” he added.
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