By Xinhua
Cairo : A plane of multi-national peacekeeping force crashed in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula Sunday, killing nine people on board, an official of Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) said.
Multinational forces spokesman Normand St. Pierre said that nine foreign peacekeepers, including eight French soldiers, were killed Sunday in the crash of a French transport aircraft belonging to the Sinai's peacekeeping force.
The plane crashed while en route from al-Gora airport to Saint Catherine airport, spokesman for the Air Aviation Company captain Ehab Mohiyeddin was quoted as saying, news agency MENA reported.
It also quoted security source as saying that the crashed planed collided with a Jordanian truck along the Noubei-Suez highway.
The source added that the collision caused the falling apart of the plane and scattering of its passengers in nearby mountainous areas.
The truck, loaded with glass, was also set ablaze, he said.
The peacekeeping force was deployed in Sinai with a task of monitoring the border between Egypt and Israel in the peninsula after a 1979 peace deal.