The crash on Tuesday occurred near the city of Shymkent, not far from Kazakhstan's southern border with Uzbekistan.

A statement from Kazakhstan's Committee for National Security said there were 20 military personnel on board the Antonov An-72 transport plane, and seven crew members. Turganbek Stambekov, head of the border patrol, was among those killed.

The plane was heading for Shymkent and had taken off from the capital, Astana.

Kazakhstan's KTK TV reported that the plane had gone down in bad weather.

mz/jr (Reuters, dpa, AP)