WASHINGTON/TOKYO: Arab and other allied countries have carried out about 10 percent of the nearly 2,000 air raids against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria since early August, US defense officials said Monday.

US warplanes have conducted 1,768 air strikes since Aug. 8, while other coalition aircraft have carried about 195 air raids against the IS fighters, defense officials told AFP, citing a tally through Sunday.

The numbers, which for the first time shed light on the participation of Arab coalition partners, reflect the dominant role of the US military in the air campaign.

But Pentagon officials have insisted the role for Arab and European partners is likely to grow over time.

France, Belgium, Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands and Australia have committed aircraft for the effort in Iraq, though their presence has been on a small scale so far.

Other figures released by officials and by US Central Command showed the mounting scale of the air campaign, which began on Aug. 8 in Iraq and was extended into Syria on Sept. 23.

Meanwhile, Tokyo police are questioning a 26-year-old Japanese Muslim on suspicion of trying to join Islamic State militants in Syria, media reports and the top government spokesman said Tuesday.

The man, a student at Hokkaido University, had reportedly planned to fly to the Middle East this week to fight with the extremist group.

The student told police he “was planning to travel to Syria so as to join Islamic State to work as a fighter,” the Mainichi Shimbun and other media reported.

He hatched the plan after spotting a job advertisement posted at a second-hand bookshop in Tokyo.

The poster, which was shown on NHK, directed people interested in working in Syria to the shop clerk.

The same poster said a monthly wage of 15,000 RMB (around $2,400) was payable for people “not afraid of violence” to work in China’s Uighur Autonomous Region in northwest Xinjiang province.

Japan has a tiny Muslim population, made up largely of relatively recent immigrants, and little history of homegrown religious extremism.

Detectives are also investigating the advertiser, the Yomiuri Shimbun said, without giving details of his or her identity.

An employee at the bookstore was quoted as saying: “I introduced several people to a former university professor of Islamic law.” The academic denied advising anyone to join the jihadis, the Asahi Shimbun said, without identifying him or her.