Iran condoles with Algeria on jet crash

Iran’s Majlis speaker Ali Larijani has offered condolences over a deadly plane crash in Algeria.

In separate messages to the presidents of the two chambers of Algeria’s parliament – the Council of the Nation (Upper Chamber) and the People’s National Assembly (Lower Chamber) – on Wednesday, Larijani expressed deep sorrow over the tragic event.

He also extended Iranian parliamentarians’ condolences to the Algerian nation.

On Tuesday, some 77 people lost their lives after a military aircraft crashed in Algeria’s mountainous northeast. One person survived the crash, which was the deadliest air disaster since the country’s independence in 1962.

The C-130 Hercules aircraft was travelling from the town of Tamanrasset in the south when it crashed into Mount Djebel Fertas in the Oum El Bouaghi region.

According to the Algerian radio, the airplane was heading to the city of Constantine, some 380 kilometers (240 miles) east of the capital, where it ran into “poor weather conditions.”

As the aircraft started its descent into Constantine, the plane lost contact with the control tower.

Tamanrasset is the main garrison base for the country’s southern military operations.