Iran military plane crash kills 302

An Iranian military plane crashed in southeastern Iran yesterday, killing 302 soldiers and aircrew, the official state news agency IRNA reported.

IRNA said the victims included 18 aircrew and the rest were members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

State television said the Russian-built aircraft was flying from Zahedan, near Iran's border with Pakistan, to the city of Kerman.

A government official, who declined to be named, said the crash in the mostly desert region appeared to have been caused by bad weather.

He said the plane had gone down about 80 km (50 miles) from Kerman, which lies 1,075 km (670 miles) southeast of Tehran.

A senior source close to the government told Reuters some high-ranking military officials were among the fatalities.

State television had earlier reported that air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane at about 5:30 p.m. local time (1400 GMT).

Last year, all 119 people aboard an Iran Air Tours died when the Tupolev-154 aircraft crashed near the western city of Khorramabad.

In 1988, an Iran Air A-300 Airbus was shot down over the Gulf by the U.S. warship Vincennes which wrongly identified it as an attacking fighter. All 290 people on board were killed.