A Kurdish official told BuzzFeed News that he “believed” information reported by local press was accurate.
An official from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) told BuzzFeed News Monday that he "believed" the information reported by local press was accurate, but that they were waiting for results of an investigation before making an official comment.
Local press and the Associated Press identified the man as Muhammad Jamal Amin, an American citizen born in Virginia to an Iraqi mother and Palestinian father.
Rudaw posted images of Amin's Virginia driver's license and bank cards, which identified the man as 27 years old.
Iraqi-Kurdish Major General Feisal Helkani told the AP that Amin was carrying a large amount of cash, a U.S. driver's license, and three cell phones.
He was taken into custody by Kurdish fighting forces known as the Peshmerga near the town of Sinjar, a front-line area of the local fight against ISIS, recently taken back from the militant group by Kurdish forces in November.
In the videos the man can be heard telling Kurdish forces that he is from the United States and was living in Mosul, Iraq's second largest city which has been under the control of ISIS for almost two years.
Helkani said that Amin appears to have entered Syria by the Turkish border a few months prior and made his way to Mosul. Why Amin was in the area remains unclear.
In a statement, the State Department said they were aware of the reports and were "in touch with Iraqi and Kurdish authorities to determine the veracity of these reports."
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/1YRuamm
No comments:
Post a Comment