Search for remains of Iranian soldiers halted due to weather

TEHRAN, Iran -- Strong wind, fog and rain forced authorities to call off efforts late Thursday to recover the remains of 302 elite troops killed in the Iran's deadliest plane crash.

The soldiers were on their way from Zahedan, on the Pakistani border, to Kerman, about 500 miles southeast of Tehran, when their military transport plane crashed Wednesday in the Sirach Mountains.

The crash took place amid bad weather about 20 miles from the plane's destination. The Russian-made Ilyushin failed to clear the top of a peak by about 330 feet, said Ali Jafari, an officer in charge of recovery operations.

Rescue workers have ruled out any survivors.

All aboard -- 18 crew members and 284 passengers -- were members of the Revolutionary Guards, an elite group under the direct control of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The guards protect Iran's borders and defend ruling hard-liners in this ultraconservative society.

A senior official in Zahedan told The Associated Press that several of the victims were senior officers. Another official said the forces had gone to Zahedan to prepare for the visit of Khamenei, who was scheduled to tour the city today. It was not clear whether that visit would take place.

Revolutionary Guards have encircled the crash site, preventing people from approaching and restricting journalists.

Jafari told AP that bulldozers have cleared roads to the scene and more than 600 people were searching for remains. Earlier Thursday, recovery teams located some mutilated bodies but were unable to get to them because of fog, rain and strong wind.

Helicopters forced back

Two helicopters that tried to reach the crash site flew back to Kerman because of bad weather, said Jafari, a local Revolutionary Guard commander.

The weather also was slowing down crews on the ground, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported. Still, it said, search teams managed to find parts of the plane, including a wing.

Air traffic controllers said the pilot had radioed about bad weather and strong winds before losing contact, Tehran television reported. There was heavy snow in many parts of Iran on Wednesday, including Zahedan, which hadn't seen snow in three years.

The crash was the latest in a string of plane accidents the Iranian government has blamed on U.S. sanctions, arguing that they have prevented the country from repairing and replacing its aging fleet.

Trade between Iran and the United States has been frozen under sanctions Washington imposed after the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

Since the Islamic revolution that year, Iran has supplemented its fleet of Boeing and European-made Airbus airliners with planes bought or leased from the former Soviet Union. Iran is not allowed to buy European-made Airbuses because about 40 percent of their parts are U.S.-made.

The government issued a statement offering condolences to the families of the victims and the governor general of Kerman declared three days of mourning beginning today.

Thursday was an Islamic holiday in Iran, celebrating the day Shiite Muslims believe Islam's prophet Muhammad appointed his son-in-law, Ali, as his successor.

Wednesday's crash was the deadliest in Iranian history, with the toll surpassing the 290 killed on July 3, 1988, when an Iran Air A300 Airbus was shot down over the Gulf by the USS Vincennes. The U.S. military said it misidentified the plane as an Iranian fighter, an account disputed by Iran.