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Flydubai says flight from Afghanistan diverted en route to Dubai


    DUBAI (Reuters) - State-owned flydubai said on Saturday that its flight from Kandahar, Afghanistan, to Dubai has been diverted in response to earlier report that one of its flights has been forced to land in Iran.

    "Flydubai flight FZ 4359 has been diverted en route to Dubai and an updated arrival time is being established,? a spokesperson told Reuters, without giving further details.

    A U.S. State Department official said a charter aircraft flying from the U.S. airbase at Bagram in Afghanistan to Dubai was re-routed to Bandar Abbas, Iran, on Friday due to "a bureaucratic issue."

    The Washington Post earlier reported that Iranian fighter jets had forced a plane carrying about 100 Americans, and possibly two Canadians, to land in Iran. It said the plane was chartered by the Pentagon from flydubai in the United Arab Emirates.

    (Reporting by Praveen Menon; writing by Rania El Gamal)