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Turkish Defence Minister Yasar Guler and army chief Selcuk Bayraktaroglu attend ceremony at an airbase close to Ankara.
Revealed On 27 Dec 2025
Turkiye has held a army ceremony to honour a gaggle of Libyan officers, together with army chief Mohammed Ali Ahmed al-Haddad, who have been killed in a aircraft crash over Turkish territory earlier this week.
The ceremony, held on Sunday at Murted airbase exterior the capital, Ankara, honoured al-Haddad and 4 different army officers who have been in Turkiye for high-level defence talks earlier than the crash on Tuesday.
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Turkiye’s army chief Selcuk Bayraktaroglu and Defence Minister Yasar Guler have been in attendance on the ceremony. The stays of the Libyan officers will probably be transported again house, the place an official funeral will probably be held.
The plane carrying the Libyan delegation went down on Tuesday shortly after taking off from Ankara, following what Libyan officers mentioned was a technical malfunction. All these on board, together with three crew members, have been killed.
Al-Haddad, Libya’s highest-ranking army officer, was a key determine within the United Nations-brokered efforts to unify the nation’s divided armed forces. His dying drew condolences even from the rival factions.
“Haddad was this sturdy, charismatic chief who at all times [sought] peace within the nation,” mentioned Al Jazeera’s Malik Traina, reporting from al-Haddad’s hometown of Misrata, Libya. “He was a person of peace, well-respected throughout the nation, even amongst folks he fought in opposition to.”
Khalifa Haftar, head of japanese Libya’s rival administration – whose forces al-Haddad opposed throughout a 2019 advance on western Libya – was amongst those that prolonged sympathies.
In a press release, Haftar expressed “deep sorrow over this tragic loss” and supplied condolences to al-Haddad’s household, tribe, and metropolis, in addition to “to all of the Libyan folks”.
‘Huge footwear to fill’
Following the ceremony in Turkiye, 5 coffins draped in Libyan nationwide flags have been loaded onto a aircraft for repatriation to Libya. Turkiye’s army chief Bayraktaroglu was additionally on the aircraft, state-run information company TRT reported.
Libya plunged into chaos after the nation’s 2011 rebellion toppled and killed longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi. The nation is cut up, with rival administrations within the east and the west, backed by an array of rogue militias and completely different international governments.
Turkiye has been the primary backer of Libya’s authorities within the west, however has lately taken steps to enhance ties with the eastern-based administration as effectively.
Traina mentioned it is going to be “extraordinarily troublesome” for Libya’s Western authorities “to search out somebody as revered” to exchange al-Haddad, who had chaired a United Nations-backed truce committee. “They’re extraordinarily huge footwear to fill.”
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