RABAT, Morocco » A Moroccan military transport plane crashed Tuesday in a mountainous southern region, the information minister said. A Moroccan news website says 26 people were killed.

Information Minister Khaled Naciri confirmed to The Associated Press that the plane crashed near the city of Guelmim on Tuesday.

"There are people dead," Naciri said by telephone.

He would not give a death toll or other information, saying the government was trying to pin down details.

The Goud news website said 26 people were killed and four wounded in the crash of the Royal Armed Forces C-130 jet. It said 70 people were aboard. The website cited unnamed local sources, and its information could not immediately be confirmed.

Moroccan military officials and officials at the military hospital in Guelmim could not be reached.

Guelmim is more than 600 kilometers (360 miles) southwest of the capital Rabat, just north of the disputed Western Sahara territory and a few dozen kilometers from the Atlantic Coast.