The federal government has confirmed a Canadian is under arrest in Iraq after it was reported that a former member of the Canadian Forces who fought there with the Kurds against ISIS has been detained.

"We are aware of the arrest of a Canadian citizen in Iraq," Amy Mills, a spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, said Tuesday.

"Canadian consular officials at the embassy of Canada in Amman, Jordan, are providing consular assistance as required," Mills said. "Due to the Privacy Act, further details on this case cannot be released."

The National Post reported Tuesday that the Canadian man in custody left the military in 2014 after 4½ years of service.

The former soldier was not identified by name in the Post's report.

The newspaper cited Hanna Bohman, a Vancouver woman currently with Kurdish forces, as saying the arrested Canadian had volunteered with the People's Protection Units, or YPG.

Bohman said the Canadian man was detained in northern Iraq in late October along with a Swede, two Spaniards and two Americans, the Post reported.

The newspaper says the Kurds in their autonomous region of northern Iraq do not permit volunteer Western fighters to use their territory to get into Syria. The volunteers are smuggled into Syria, but face detention when they return to Iraq, the newspaper said.