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Key senator looks to block Apache sale to Egypt over injured American

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., is calling for the State Department to hold a billion-dollar US helicopter sale to Egypt until Cairo pays for the medical bills of an American wounded in a 2015 attack.
AH-64 Apache helicopters fly during a closing ceremony of the NATO-led military exercises "Noble Partner 2018" at Vaziani military base outside Tbilisi, Georgia August 15, 2018. REUTERS/Irakli Gedenidze - RC148FDC7800

The top Democrat on the Senate’s powerful spending panel wants the Donald Trump administration to hold up a billion-dollar Apache helicopter sale to Egypt until it pays the bills of an American citizen wounded in a 2015 attack by the same US-made aircraft.

Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who froze $300 million in US military aid to Egypt last year over alleged human rights abuses, has told the State Department that he wants Cairo to pay the medical bills of April Corley.

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