Reports from Algiers said on Wednesday that an Algerian military plane carrying about 200 people crashed shortly after take-off, near the capital.
Local media said the Iliushin-type military aircraft crashed near an air base in Boufarik, located about 30 kilometers (20 miles) southwest of the capital, Algiers.
Some reports reported that all the passengers and crew onboard were killed. The Defense Ministry issued a statement saying the cause of the crash was unclear and that an investigation had been opened. It did not give a casualty toll.
The plane was reportedly heading to Bechar, in the southwest of the country near the border with Morocco.
Report said that 26 of those killed were members of the Polisario Front, an armed political movement seeking independence for the Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara.
Algeria is the chief backer of the Polisario Front, which Morocco accuses of setting up military posts in a UN-monitored buffer zone in the Western Sahara near the border with Algeria.
The Moroccan Foreign Minister, Nasser Bourita, last week said Rabat would take whatever action necessary to defend Western Sahara and blamed Algeria for the conflict that has lasted over three decades.
