Algeria plane crash kills 257 near Boufarik airport; top 10 developments

257 passengers were on the Algerian military plane. All of them are dead. The Soviet-designed Il-76 military transport plane crashed in an agricultural zone with no residents

 

More than 250 people, including members of Western Sahara’s Polisario independence movement, were killed on Wednesday when a military plane crashed in a field outside Algeria’s capital, officials said. The cause of the crash was unclear, and an investigation has been opened, according to a Defense Ministry statement. Emergency services converged on the area near the Boufarik military base after the crash.

"The plane was carrying soldiers," Mohammed Achour, chief spokesman for the civil protection agency, told The Associated Press. The Defense Ministry did not provide a death toll but expressed condolences to the victims' families. The flight