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Update on IRGC Plane Crash
A Falcon airplane carrying military officials of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Ground Forces, including IRGC Ground Forces Commander Ahmad Kazemi, crashed Monday morning, killing all 11 people on board. The plane, which was heading from Tehran to Urumiyeh in northwest Iran, crashed at 9:30 a.m. local time in a village near the city, 10 kilometers from the Urumiyeh airport.

The Armed Forces headquarters issued a statement citing the failure of the plane’s two engines as the cause of the crash. IRGC Public Relations Office Deputy Director Yadollah Rabii told the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) that the military officials were accompanying Major General Kazemi in a periodic visit to the region. He noted that the pilot had initially reported a technical failure of the plane’s wheels and then in its two engines, after which he failed to make a safe landing due to bad weather conditions.

Following is the list of the names of the eleven military personnel killed in the crash as announced by Rabii:

(1) Major General Ahmad Kazemi, commander of IRGC Ground Forces;

(2) Brigadier General Saeed Mohtadi Jafari, commander of Rasulollah Division 27 of the IRGC;

(3) Brigadier General Saeed Soleimani, deputy commander for operational affairs of the IRGC Ground Forces;

(4) Brigadier General Nabiollah Shahmoradi, deputy commander for intelligence affairs of the IRGC Ground Forces;

(5) Brigadier General Abbas Karbandi-Mojarad, commander of the Qadr Air Base of the IRGC Air Force (the plane's pilot);

(6) Brigadier General Gholam-Reza Yazdani, commander of the IRGC Ground Forces Artillery Unit;

(7) Brigadier General Safdar Reshadi, deputy commander for planning of the IRGC Ground Forces;

(8) Brigadier General Ahmad Elhaminejad, commandant of the IRGC Air Force Academy (the plane’s copilot);

(9) Brigadier General Hamid Azinpur, the commander of the IRGC Ground Forces Command Office;

(10) Colonel Morteza Basiri, flight engineer;

(11) Mohsen Asadi, bodyguard of the IRGC Ground Forces commander.

Posted by: Pappy 2006-01-10
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=139473