Updated

An Iraqi asylum-seeker is in French custody on preliminary charges of war crimes and terrorism amid reports that he was a senior figure in the Islamic State group.

The Paris prosecutor's office said Friday that the man, identified as Ahmed H., was arrested in Normandy in March.

The prosecutor's office, which oversees French terrorism investigations, said he has been given preliminary charges of war crimes and murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise, among other charges.

Le Monde reported that the man is notably suspected of involvement in a 2014 attack in the Iraqi city of Tikrit.

Some members of the Islamic State network behind the November 2015 attacks in Paris had also arrived in Europe pretending to be war refugees.