Turkish Defence Minister Yasar Guler and army chief Selcuk Bayraktaroglu attend ceremony at an airbase close to Ankara.
Printed On 27 Dec 2025
Turkiye has held a army ceremony to honour a bunch of Libyan officers, together with army chief Mohammed Ali Ahmed al-Haddad, who had been killed in a plane crash over Turkish territory earlier this week.
The ceremony, held on Sunday at Murted airbase outdoors the capital, Ankara, honoured al-Haddad and 4 different army officers who had 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 had been in attendance on the ceremony. The stays of the Libyan officers shall be transported again house, the place an official funeral shall be held.
The plane carrying the Libyan delegation went down on Tuesday shortly after taking off from Ankara, following what Libyan officers stated was a technical malfunction. All these on board, together with three crew members, had 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 loss of life drew condolences even from the rival factions.
“Haddad was this robust, charismatic chief who at all times [sought] peace within the nation,” stated 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 individuals he fought towards.”
Khalifa Haftar, head of jap Libya’s rival administration – whose forces al-Haddad opposed throughout a 2019 advance on western Libya – was amongst those that prolonged sympathies.
In an announcement, Haftar expressed “deep sorrow over this tragic loss” and provided condolences to al-Haddad’s household, tribe, and metropolis, in addition to “to all of the Libyan individuals”.
‘Massive footwear to fill’
Following the ceremony in Turkiye, 5 coffins draped in Libyan nationwide flags had been loaded onto a airplane for repatriation to Libya. Turkiye’s army chief Bayraktaroglu was additionally on the airplane, 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 break up, with rival administrations within the east and the west, backed by an array of rogue militias and completely different overseas governments.
Turkiye has been the principle backer of Libya’s authorities within the west, however has not too long ago taken steps to enhance ties with the eastern-based administration as nicely.
Traina stated will probably be “extraordinarily tough” for Libya’s Western authorities “to seek out somebody as revered” to switch al-Haddad, who had chaired a United Nations-backed truce committee. “They’re extraordinarily huge footwear to fill.”
