TEHERAN: An Iranian military plane crashed in northwest Iran yesterday, killing at least 11 people aboard, including several senior Revolutionary Guard commanders, police and news agencies said.

Ahmad Kazemi, head of the corps' ground forces, was killed, Revolutionary Guard spokesman Massoud Jazayeri told the official IRNA news agency.

Kazemi was one of the most powerful commanders after Yahya Rahim Safavi, commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Guard.

Mehr news agency reported that also among the dead were Kazemi's deputy and Revolutionary Guard ground force commanders of artillery, operations and co-ordination activities.

IRNA said 11 people died. A police spokesman said 13 people died when the Falcon jet crashed near Orumiyeh and the Fars news agency said 15 people were aboard and 13 died.

The Revolutionary Guard is a parallel military force that has its own army, air force and navy. It is pledged to defend the principles of the 1979 Islamic revolution and answers directly to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

A villager from Aidinlou, some 400 metres from the crash site, said: "We heard the roar of the engines low overhead, then silence. There was no explosion but we ran out to see what had happened."

The villager, who declined to be named, added: "The plane was already burned-out and we could see eight corpses."

Villagers said several hundred policemen had cordoned off the area.

Mehr blamed the crash on bad weather but villagers said overnight snow and rain had abated by the time of the crash.

Jazayeri told state television the plane had crash landed in a field at 09:30 am (0600 GMT) because of a combination of technical problems and bad weather.

Iran's military planes have reported a poor safety record in recent years. A C-130 Hercules smashed into an apartment block last month, killing 116 people, and an Ilyushin-76 troop carrier crashed in southeast Iran in 2003, killing 276 Revolutionary Guards and crew aboard.

Iran to resume nuclear research

Iran confirmed it would resume research on nuclear fuel yesterday.

"Iran will today resume nuclear fuel research as scheduled," government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham told a news conference yesterday morning.

(China Daily 01/10/2006 page8)