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Türkiye held a ceremony in the capital Ankara on Saturday before the bodies of members of a Libyan military delegation, including Chief of General Staff Gen. Mohammed Ali al-Haddad, who were killed in a plane crash, were repatriated to Libya.
The ceremony took place at Murted Air Base Command, where attendees observed a moment of silence, followed by a recitation from the Holy Quran and prayers for the deceased.
After their names were read aloud, the bodies of the Libyan delegation members were transferred to an aircraft and sent to Libya.
The five caskets, each wrapped in a Libyan national flag, were loaded onto a plane to be returned to their home country.
The ceremony was attended by Turkish National Defense Minister Yasar Guler, Chief of General Staff General Selcuk Bayraktaroglu, Land Forces Commander General Metin Tokel, Naval Forces Commander Admiral Ercument Tatlioglu, Libyan Ambassador to Ankara Mustafa Elgelaib, members of a Libyan military delegation, and families of the victims.
Bayraktaroglu later departed for Libya to attend a military ceremony following the repatriation of the bodies.
Those killed included Haddad, Libyan Land Forces Commander Lt. Gen. Futuri Gharibil, Director of Libyan Military Factories Brig. Gen. Mahmoud Juma al-Gitewi, adviser to the Libyan chief of general staff Mohammed Assawi, and photographer Mohammed Omar Ahmed Mahjoub.
The Falcon 50 business jet crashed on Dec. 23 shortly after departing from Ankara's Esenboga Airport, bound for Tripoli. The aircraft went down approximately 2 kilometers (1.24 miles) south of Kesikkavak village in Ankara's Haymana district.
The Turkish Ministry of National Defense said the aircraft declared an emergency due to an electrical malfunction before initiating return procedures to Esenboga Airport.
The black box from the crashed aircraft has been sent to Germany for analysis, the Libyan Interior Ministry announced Friday.
The ministry said the step aims to "ensure a careful technical assessment" of the crash. Flight recording devices are typically analyzed by Germany's Federal Aviation Accident Investigation Authority (BFU) in Braunschweig.
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