Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi dead: report

Mumbai: Islamic State chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who had sustained serious injuries in an airstrike in western Iraq on March 18 is reportedly dead, says Radio Iran.

According to a Guardian newspaper report, the ISIS leader suffered life-threatening injuries during an airstrike by the US-led coalition, but had apparently made a slow recovery.

Hisham al-Hashimi, an Iraqi official who advises Baghdad on ISIA, told The Guardian: “Yes, he was wounded in al-Baaj near the village of Umm al-Rous on 18 March with a group that was with him.”

Baghdadi had on June 29, 2014 been declared "caliph" in an attempt to revive a system of rule that ended nearly 100 years ago with the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

Baghdadi, born in Samarra in 1971 according to Washington, apparently joined the insurgency that erupted shortly after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, at one point spending time in an American military prison in the country.

In October 2011, the US Treasury designated him as a "terrorist", and there was a $10-million bounty for his capture.