ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A Japanese journalist has been arrested in Iraq’s northern Kurdistan Region for suspected links to ISIS, an official source told Rudaw on Tuesday.
Kosuke Tsuneoka, who had been covering the ongoing Mosul offensive against ISIS, was arrested by the Kurdish Asayesh security forces and is now under questioning, the source said on customary condition of anonymity.
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.
An investigation is underway and he will be handed over to the Japanese consulate in Erbil,” the Kurdish source told Rudaw.
The arrest was also confirmed by the Japanese government spokesman Yoshihide Suga in Japan.
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