A French peacekeeping plane has crashed in Egypt, killing nine foreign peacekeepers, including French and Canadian soldiers.
According to the AP, the plane belonged to the multi-national force that patrols the Sinai Desert border between Egypt and Israel. The air control officer at Cairo airport claimed the plane was heading from the northern Sinai airport of Al-Gurah towards St Catherine, further south.
"Yes, unfortunately we have had reports of a plane crash. It was a French aircraft carrying eight French crew members. There was one other officer on board whose identity we are still trying to get," the MFO director general's representative, Normand St Pierre, told AFP.
"It was a training mission and we lost touch with the plane shortly after takeoff," he said.
It should be mentioned that the peacekeeping force has members from nearly a dozen nations, including the US, Canada, Italy and Fiji.
