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The head of Libya’s armed forces and four other high ranking military officials died late Tuesday when their business jet crashed shortly after taking off from Ankara, officials in Turkey’s capital and Tripoli said.The wreckage of their Falcon 50 aircraft was located by Turkish security personnel in the Haymana district near Ankara, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said. Three crew members were also killed.Libya’s Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah said on his Facebook page: “It is with deep sadness and great sorrow that we learnt of the death of the Libyan army’s chief of general staff, Lieutenant General Mohammed al-Haddad.”Haddad earlier Tuesday held talks in Ankara with Turkish Defence Minister Yasar Guler, and his Turkish counterpart, Selcuk Bayraktaroglu, and was returning to Tripoli.Yerlikaya said on X that Haddad’s jet took off from Ankara’s Esenboga airport at 1710 GMT, and “contact was lost” 42 minutes later.The aircraft issued an emergency landing notification near Haymana — 74 kilometres (45 miles) from Ankara — but contact could not be reestablished, the minister said. A senior Turkish official said the plane requested an emergency landing because of electrical failure 16 minutes after it took off. The jet carried eight passengers including Haddad, four members of his entourage and three crew members “reported an emergency to the air traffic control centre due to an electrical failure, asking for an emergency landing,” Burhanettin Duran, head of the presidency’s communications directorate, said on X. Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said the Ankara chief prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation into the incident. -‘Like a bomb’-Several Turkish media outlets broadcast images showing the sky lit up by an explosion not far from the location where the aircraft sent a signal.Burhan Cicek, a local in Haymana, recalled the moment when the plane crashed. “I heard a big sound of explosion. It was like a bomb,” he told AFP. Libya’s ambassador to Ankara was also at the site. Walid Ellafi, Libyan minister of state for communication and political affairs, told local television channel Libya al-Ahrar that the Turkish government informed his government of the incident. “We received a call from the Turkish authorities immediately after the incident, reporting that contact with the aircraft had been lost,” the minister said. “All contact with the aircraft was lost about half an hour after takeoff from Ankara airport due to a technical problem,” he said. “We are awaiting the conclusions of the Turkish investigation, and it appears that the plane crashed.”The minister said the others on the aircraft were Haddad’s advisor, Mohammed Al-Assawi, as well as Major General Al-Fitouri Ghraibil, Major General Mohammed Jumaa, and their escort, Mohammed Al-Mahjoub.Haddad had been the army’s chief of general staff since August 2020 and was appointed by then-prime minister Fayez al-Sarraj.Libya is split between a UN-recognised government in Tripoli, led by Dbeibah, and commander Khalifa Haftar’s administration in the east.The North African country has been divided since a NATO-backed revolt toppled and killed longtime leader Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.Turkey has close ties with the UN-backed government in Tripoli, to which it provides economic and military support and there have been frequent visits between both sides. But Ankara has recently also reached out to the rival administration in the east, with the head of Turkey’s intelligence agency, Ibrahim Kalin, meeting with Haftar in Benghazi in August.burs-fo/gv

London police on Tuesday arrested Swedish activist Greta Thunberg at a demonstration in support of pro-Palestinian hunger strikers, Palestinian campaign groups said.Thunberg’s arrest makes her the highest profile person to be detained by police since the government banned the Palestine Action group under anti-terror laws.Prisoners for Palestine, which organised the protest, said in a statement that Thunberg was arrested under the UK Terrorism Act. Thunberg, 22, was holding a sign reading: “I support the Palestine Action prisoners. I oppose genocide.”City of London Police said several people were arrested.They did not directly name Thunberg, but said “a 22-year-old woman… has been arrested for displaying an item (in this case a placard) in support of a proscribed organisation (in this case Palestine Action) contrary to Section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000”.Hours later, police said she was released on bail.Police said another three people were arrested at the protest, at a building in London’s financial quarter, on suspicion of criminal damage.The three were detained after “hammers and red paint were used to damage a building” and they glued themselves to fixtures nearby, police said. Prisoners for Palestine said its protest had targeted the offices of Aspen Insurance because the company provided services to Israeli-linked defence firm Elbit Systems UK.- ‘Political prisoners’ -Thunberg on Monday described the detained hunger strikers as “political prisoners” in a video posted on Instagram.The British government in July outlawed Palestine Action after activists broke into an air force base and caused an estimated £7 million ($9.3 million) of damage.Some of the eight detainees who went on hunger strike had been charged over that incident.The group, aged between 20 and 31, are facing trials relating to break-ins or criminal damage by Palestine Action.Their hunger strike is to protest their treatment and call for their release on bail.The first two prisoners going on the hunger strike were into their 52nd day, Prisoners for Palestine said on Tuesday. The Guardian newspaper reported that three of the eight had ended their hunger strike.Asked about it in parliament last week, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said “rules and procedures” were being followed.The government’s ban on Palestine Action — which makes being a member of the group or supporting it a serious criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison — has resulted in at least 2,300 arrests of demonstrators, according to protest organisers Defend Our Juries. According to London’s Met Police in late November, so far 254 out of the more than 2,000 arrested have been charged with a lesser offence which carries a sentence of up to six months.Thunberg has maintained a high profile in protests supporting Palestinians.In October, she was among hundreds of people who boarded a flotilla that tried to break through the Israeli blockade of Gaza.