Plane Crash in Tehran Kills Elite Troops

Iran's poor air safety record came under renewed scrutiny today after at least 36 Revolutionary Guards were killed when a military plane burst into flames on takeoff.

Reports suggested the Russian-built Antonov-74 had sustained engine failure before veering off the runway at Tehran's Mehrabad airport. It is believed to have exploded after striking an object.

The aircraft was transporting mid-ranking officers to a military facility in Shiraz, about 650 miles south of Tehran. It was initially reported that there were two survivors but unconfirmed reports suggested that they later died in hospital. Fire and rescue services found the charred remains of some victims scattered on the ground.

Yahya Rahim Safavi, the revolutionary guards' commander-in-chief, told the official IRNA news agency that the plane had suffered a "technical failure in its engine" but hinted at foul play and said an investigation would determine the cause.

Referring to recent war games displaying Iran's military might and to on-going celebrations honouring the Basij, the country's religious volunteer militia, he said: "It is natural after the Greatest Prophet manoeuvres and during the Basij week that the enemy should do something. Revengeful enemies have surrounded us and inside there are also some hypocrites."

It was Iran's third air disaster this year and the latest in a string of crashes that have cast doubt over its air-safety procedures. Some 29 people died when a Russian-made Tupolev civilian plane caught fire after landing in the shrine city of Mashhad in September. Nine revolutionary guard commanders died in January when a military plane crashed in north-western Iran.

Today's crash came almost exactly a year after an American-made Hercules C-130 military transport plane smashed into a block of Tehran flats minutes after takeoff. The crash killed all 94 people on board - most of them journalists going to report on military manoeuvres - and 22 on the ground.

Iran blames its poor record on US sanctions preventing it from buying Boeing and Airbus planes and restricting it to the black market for spare parts. A UN incentive package aimed at resolving the dispute over Iran's nuclear programme offers to lift the embargo in exchange for it suspending uranium enrichment.

Many of Iran's worst air disasters have occurred among its aging fleet of Soviet-designed models, which experts say are poorly maintained. Three crashes involving such planes killed more than 400 people during 2002 and 2003.