Forbes: US refuses to allow evacuation of Al-Arabiya's wounded reporter

DUBAI (AFX) - Television channel Al-Arabiya said US military authorities had refused to authorize the evacuation from Iraq of reporter Jawad Kazem, who was wounded by armed men Saturday in Baghdad.

In a statement received by Agence France-Presse, the Dubai-based TV station said its attempts to obtain permission for a medical aircraft to evacuate its journalist from Baghdad had met with 'a refusal from the American military authorities'.

In 'intensive' contacts with 'the Iraqi government, the Pentagon, the State Department and American Central Command (Centcom) in Qatar' Al-Arabiya had explained 'the gravity of the state of health' of Kazem and 'the need to transfer him out of Iraq in the hope of saving his life,' the statement said.

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