A Japanese journalist has been arrested in Iraq’s northern Kurdistan Region for suspected links to Daesh terror group. 

Kosuke Tsuneoka, who had been covering the ongoing Mosul offensive against Daesh, was arrested by Kurdish forces. 

Kurdish media outlets published photos of Tsuneoka while he was accompanied by a Daesh leader and carrying a machine gun. 

Sources said that Tsuneoka converted to Islam, had good contacts with Chechen militants fighting for Daesh and had spent time in the Daesh capital of Raqqa in Syria.

An investigation is underway and he will be handed over to the Japanese consulate in Erbil.