A Japanese journalist who was covering the fight in Iraq against the Islamic State has been detained for alleged links to the terrorist group, according to media reports.
The journalist, Kosuke Tsuneoka, was arrested in Iraq's northern Kurdistan Region and will be handed over to the Japanese consulate in the region's capital city of Erbil after questioning, the Kurdish Rudaw Media Network reports. There are conflicting accounts of whether Tsuneoka is being held by the Kurdish military (Peshmerga) or the Kurdish police (Asayesh).
A Kurdish security official who spoke to Rudaw commented on what the Kurdish authorities suspect of Tsuneoka.
He added that Tsuneoka was a convert to Islam, had good contacts with Chechen militants fighting for ISIS, and had spent time in the ISIS capital of Raqqa in Syria."He is suspected to be a member of ISIS," he said.
"He is suspected to be a member of ISIS," he said.
The Japan Times has another account of Tsuneoka's past.
The journalist previously covered fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. He was abducted by a militant group in Afghanistan in April 2010 and freed unhurt that September after a five-month hostage ordeal at the hands of Hizb-i-Islami.
After he returned to Japan, Tsuneoka said he had "braced for his execution" during the months in captivity.
The Japanese government is aware of Tsuneoka's detention and has requested access to him, calling for appropriate treatment during the investigation, the Associated Press reported.
The government has strongly discouraged its citizens from traveling to the region after two Japanese hostages were executed by ISIS last year.