Search teams probe wreckage after Libyan army chief and 7 others are killed in Turkey plane crash

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Search teams on Wednesday recovered the cockpit voice and flight data recorders from the jet that crashed and killed Libya’s military chief and other senior officers, while efforts to retrieve the victim's remains were still underway, Turkey's interior minister said.

The private jet carrying Gen. Muhammad Ali Ahmad al-Haddad, four other officers and three crew members crashed in Turkey on Tuesday after taking off from the capital, Ankara, killing everyone on board. Libyan officials said the cause of the crash was a technical malfunction on the plane.

The high-level Libyan delegation was on its way back to Tripoli after holding defense talks in Ankara aimed at boosting military cooperation between the two countries.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya told journalists at site of the crash that wreckage was scattered across an area covering three square kilometers (about 1.2 square miles), complicating recovery efforts. Authorities from the Turkish forensic medicine authority were working to recover and identify the remains, he said.

A 22-person delegation — including five family members — arrived from Libya early on Wednesday to assist in the investigation, he said.

Libyan Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah confirmed the deaths on Tuesday, describing the incident on Facebook as a “tragic accident” and a “great loss” for Libya.

Al-Hadad was the top military commander in western Libya and played a crucial role in the ongoing, U.N.-brokered efforts to unify Libya’s military, which has split, much like Libya’s other institutions.

The four other officers who died in the crash were Gen. Al-Fitouri Ghraibil, the head of Libya’s ground forces, Brig. Gen. Mahmoud Al-Qatawi, who led the military manufacturing authority, Mohammed Al-Asawi Diab, advisor to the chief of staff, and Mohammed Omar Ahmed Mahjoub, a military photographer with the chief of staff’s office.

The identities of the three crew members were not immediately released.

Turkish officials said the Falcon 50 type business jet took off from Ankara’s Esenboga airport at 8:30 p.m. and that contact was lost some 40 minutes later. The plane notified air traffic control of an electrical fault and requested an emergency landing. The aircraft was redirected back to Esenboga, where preparations for its landing began.

The plane, however, disappeared from the radar while descending for the emergency landing, the Turkish presidential communications office said.

The Libyan government declared a three-day period of national mourning. Flags would be flown half-mast at all state institutions, according to the government’s announcement on Facebook.

The wreckage was found near the village of Kesikkavak, in Haymana, a district some 70 kilometers (about 45 miles) south of Ankara.

At the crash site, search and recovery teams intensified their operations on Wednesday after a night of heavy rain and fog, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. Gendarmerie police sealed off the area while the Turkish disaster management agency, AFAD, set up a mobile coordination center. Specialized vehicles, such as tracked ambulances, were deployed because of the muddy terrain.

Turkey has assigned four prosecutors to lead the investigation and Yerlikaya said the Turkish search and recovery teams numbered 408 personnel.

While in Ankara, al-Haddad had met with Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler and other officials.

Libya plunged into chaos after the country’s 2011 uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. The country split, with rival administrations in the east and west, backed by an array of rogue militias and foreign governments.

Turkey has been allied with Libya’s government in the west, but has recently taken steps to improve ties with the eastern-based government as well.

Tuesday’s visit by the Libyan delegation came a day after Turkey’s parliament approved to extend the mandate of Turkish troops serving in Libya for two years. Turkey deployed troops following a 2019 security and military cooperation agreement that was reached between Ankara and the Tripoli-based government.

Abuelgasim reported from Cairo. Fatma Khaled in Cairo contributed.

Turkish rescue teams search for the remains of a private jet carrying Libya's military chief and four others that crashed after taking off from Ankara, killing everyone on board, in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Efekan Akyuz)

Turkish rescue teams search for the remains of a private jet carrying Libya's military chief and four others that crashed after taking off from Ankara, killing everyone on board, in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Efekan Akyuz)

Turkish soldiers and rescue teams search for the remains of a private jet carrying Libya's military chief and four others that crashed after taking off from Ankara, killing everyone on board, in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Efekan Akyuz)

FILE - Libya's army chief of staff Gen. Muhammad Ali Ahmad al-Haddad poses for a photo in Tripoli, Libya, Oct. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Yousef Murad, File)

DWEIL'A, Syria (AP) — At a church in Syria where a suicide attack killed 25 people in June, hundreds of worshippers gathered before Christmas to remember those they lost and reaffirm their faith.

With a small detail of security forces standing guard outside, members of Mar Elias Church held Mass on Tuesday evening and lit an image of Christmas tree made of neon lights on the wall of the courtyard outside. The tree was hung with pictures of those who were killed in the attack.

They include three men the congregation hails as heroes for tackling the bomber, potentially averting a much higher death toll in the June 22 attack.

A man opened fire then detonated an explosive vest inside the Greek Orthodox church in Dweil’a on the outskirts of Damascus as it was filled with people praying on a Sunday.

Before he detonated the vest, brothers Boutros and Gergis Bechara and another congregant, Milad Haddad, tackled the shooter and pushed him out of the center of the church, congregants said.

“If it weren’t for the three of them, maybe not one person would remain out of 400 people,” said Imad Haddad, the brother of Milad Haddad, who attended Tuesday's Christmas tree lighting.

He hasn't decorated for Christmas or put up a tree at home, but gathering at the church was “is a message of peace and love” and a message that “we are believers and we are strong and we are steadfast in spite of everything," he said.

Thana al-Masoud, the widow of Boutros Bechara, recalled searching frantically for her husband after the explosion but she never found him, alive or dead. His body had been ripped apart by the blast.

“There’s no holiday, neither this year nor next year nor the one after it," she said.

She takes comfort in the belief that her husband and the two other men who confronted the attacker are martyrs for their faith.

“Our Lord chose them to be saints and to spread His word to all the world,” she said. “But the separation is difficult."

The attack on the church was the first of its kind in Syria in years and came as a new Sunni Islamist- dominated government in Damascus sought to win the confidence of religious minorities following the ouster of former President Bashar Assad.

Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa has struggled to exert authority across the country, even in the ranks of allied groups. There have been several deadly outbreaks of sectarian violence in the country in the past year.

While the new government has condemned attacks on minorities, many accuse it of failing to act to control the armed factions it is trying to absorb into the new state army and security forces.

The June attack was blamed on an Islamic State cell, which authorities said had also planned to target a Shiite shrine. IS did not claim responsibility for the attack, while a little-known group called Saraya Ansar al-Sunna said one of its members had carried out the attack. The government said the group was a cover for IS.

Christians made up about 10% of Syria’s population of 23 million before mass anti-government protests in 2011 were met by a brutal government crackdown and spiraled into a brutal 14-year civil war that saw the rise of IS and other extremist groups.

Hundreds of thousands of Christians fled during the war, during which there were sectarian attacks on Christians including the kidnapping of nuns and priests and destruction of churches. Now many are once again seeking to leave.

Since losing her husband in the church attack, Juliette Alkashi feels numb.

The couple had been sweethearts before she left Syria with her mother and brother to emigrate to Venezuela. In 2018, when Emile Bechara asked her to marry him, Alkashi moved back to Syria even though it was still in the midst of a civil war.

“Whatever is going to happen will happen, and I’ve surrendered to it," she said. "If one goes to pray and dies in the church — whatever God has written is what will be.”

The only thing that matters now, Alkashi said, is that she and her 3-year-old son remain together.

Some congregants said the attack only strengthened their faith.

“I saw a column of smoke rising from the ground to the ceiling, and I heard a voice saying, ‘I will not forsake you and I will not leave you,’” said Hadi Kindarji, who described an intense spiritual experience in the moment of the explosion.

He believes today that even the seemingly senseless violence was part of God's plan.

“Our God is present, and He was present in the church,” he said.

Yohanna Shehadeh, the priest of Mar Elias church, acknowledged many in the congregation are afraid of more deadly violence.

“Fear is a natural state. I’m not going to tell you there is no fear, and I’m not only talking about the Christians but about all the Syrian people, from all sects,” Shehadeh said.

As Christmas approaches, he said, they are praying for peace.

People react as they attend the lighting of a Christmas tree at the Greek Orthodox Mar Elias Church, months after the church was the site of a deadly suicide bombing, in the Dweila neighborhood of Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025.(AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

A Scout band plays during the lighting ceremony of a Christmas tree at the Greek Orthodox Mar Elias Church, months after the church was the site of a deadly suicide bombing, in the Dweila neighborhood of Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

People attend the lighting of a Christmas tree at the Greek Orthodox Mar Elias Church, months after the church was the site of a deadly suicide bombing, in the Dweila neighborhood of Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025.(AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

Two women hug each other as they attend the lighting of a Christmas tree at the Greek Orthodox Mar Elias Church, months after the church was the site of a deadly suicide bombing, in the Dweila neighborhood of Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025.(AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

People attend the lighting of a Christmas tree at the Greek Orthodox Mar Elias Church, months after the church was the site of a deadly suicide bombing, in the Dweila neighborhood of Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025.(AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)