•Plane signal lost near Ankara
The Prime Minister of Libya’s U.N.-recognised Government of National Unity, Abdulhamid Dbeibah, said he had received news of the death of Libya’s army chief of staff, Mohammed Ali Ahmed Al-Haddad, after Haddad’s plane lost radio contact above Turkey’s Ankara.
Dbeibah, mourning Haddad’s death, said the army chief of staff had been accompanied by others, including military officials.
Radio contact was lost yesterday with the jet carrying Al-Haddad, shortly after takeoff from the Turkish capital Ankara en route to Tripoli, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said.
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Yerlikaya said on social media platform X that the jet had taken off at 1710 GMT and radio contact was lost at 1752 GMT. He said the flight had made a request for an emergency landing while over the Haymana district of Ankara, but that no contact was established after.
Four others were on the jet, he added, while flight tracking data showed other flights being diverted away from Ankara’s Esenboga Airport.
Turkey’s defence ministry had announced the Libyan chief of staff’s visit earlier, saying he had met with Turkish Defence Minister Yasar Guler and Turkish counterpart Selcuk Bayraktaroglu, along with other Turkish military commanders.
While officials did not say whether the plane had crashed, footage on Turkish broadcasters showed a flash of light where the jet was said to have lost radio contact.
There was no immediate comment from Libyan officials.