Japan's top government spokesman, Yoshihide Suga, confirmed on Tuesday that Japanese journalist Kosuke Tsuneoka had been detained by Kurdish authorities near the Islamic State-held city of Mosul, where fierce fighting is taking place between Islamic State fighters and US-backed Iraqi forces. Japanese media reported the 47-year old being taken in to custody by Kurdish Peshmerga forces, who are currently fighting alongside the Iraqi military in a US-led coalition to reclaim Mosul. Tsuneoka was abducted and held captive for nearly five months by a militant group in Afghanistan in 2010 while covering the battle there and in Iraq in 2004.
(photo credit: The Jerusalem Post)