Image copyright AP Image caption Baghdadi has been careful to reveal little about himself and his whereabouts 
 
 There are conflicting reports about the fate of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the head of the Islamic State jihadist group. 
 
 An Iraqi interior ministry spokesman told the BBC Baghdadi was seriously wounded in a "coalition" air strike in March, without giving further details. 
 
 The Guardian newspaper quoted a Western diplomat and an Iraqi adviser as saying the air strike was in western Iraq. 
 
 The Pentagon said it had no information on Baghdadi's fate. Last year's reports of him being injured were inaccurate. 
 
 'Invisible sheikh' 
 
 The Iraqi spokesman, Brig Gen Saad Maan, told the BBC on Tuesday that Baghdadi was seriously wounded in the air strike. 
 
 He gave no details about which country carried out the raid, saying only that it was a "coalition air strike". 
 
 The US-led coalition has for months been carrying out strikes on IS positions in Iraq and Syria. 
 
 Meanwhile, the UK's Guardian newspaper said the Western diplomat and the Iraqi adviser confirmed that the March strike happened in an area close to the Syrian border. 
 
 "Yes, he was wounded in al-Baaj near the village of Umm al-Rous on 18 March with a group that was with him," adviser Hisham al-Hashimi said. 
 
 The strike targeted local IS leaders in a three-car convoy, and officials did not know at the time that Baghdadi was in one of the vehicles, the Guardian reported. 
 
 It also quoted a separate source as saying that Baghdadi's injuries were at first life-threatening, but he has since made a slow recovery. However, he has not resumed day-to-day responsibilities as the IS head. 
 
 In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Col Steve Warren told reporters the US military had no information on the fate of Baghdadi. 
 
 He added that the same reports had surfaced last month and that Al-Baghdadi had not been the target in that day's air strikes. 
 
 Separately, Col Warren told the Daily Beast: "We have no reason to believe it was Baghdadi." 
 
 Baghdadi has been careful to reveal little about himself and his whereabouts, and even his own fighters reportedly do not speak about seeing him face-to-face. 
 
 The IS chief also appears to wear a mask to address his commanders, earning the nickname "the invisible sheikh". 
 
 Profile: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ||||| Exclusive: Baghdadi no longer in day-to-day control of terror group as he recovers from injuries sustained during attack in March, according to sources 
 
 The leader of Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has been seriously wounded in an air strike in western Iraq, sources have told the Guardian. 
 
 A source in Iraq with connections to the terror group revealed that Baghdadi suffered serious injuries during an attack by the US-led coalition in March. The source said Baghdadi’s wounds were at first life-threatening, but he has since made a slow recovery. He has not, however, resumed day-to-day control of the organisation. 
 
 Baghdadi’s wounding led to urgent meetings of Isis leaders, who initially believed he would die and made plans to name a new leader. 
 
 Two separate officials – a western diplomat and an Iraqi adviser – confirmed the strike took place on 18 March in the al-Baaj a district of Nineveh, close to the Syrian border. There had been two previous reports in November and December of Baghdadi being wounded, though neither was accurate. 
 
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 The diplomat confirmed an air strike on a three-car convoy had taken place on that date between the village of Umm al-Rous and al-Qaraan. The attack targeted local Isis leaders and is believed to have killed three men. Officials did not know at the time that Baghdadi was in one of the cars. 
 
 Hisham al-Hashimi, an Iraqi official who advises Baghdad on Isis, 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.” 
 
 US officials were unable to confirm the report. “We have nothing to confirm this report,” said a Pentagon spokesman. 
 
 Baghdadi is understood to have been spending much of his time in al-Baaj, about 200 miles west of the Isis stronghold of Mosul. “He chose this area because he knew from the war that the Americans did not have much cover there,” said a source privy to some of Baghdadi’s movements. “From 2003 (the US military) barely had a presence there. It was the one part of Iraq that they hadn’t mapped out.” 
 
 
 
 Al-Baaj, a Sunni tribal area, has long remained outside of state control even under ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s regime, and was considered a safe haven for jihadists from 2004 onwards. 
 
 Residents have long used smuggling networks as well as small valleys and tracks to import goods from nearby Syria and to other parts of Sunni areas of Iraq in Nineveh and Anbar. Al-Qaida in Iraq and all its subsequent incarnations, including Isis, had largely unfettered access to the routes until al-Baaj became a focus of US surveillance earlier this year. 
 
 Baghdadi had at least one earlier brush with death when US jets attacked a two-car convoy on the outskirts of Mosul on 14 December. His close aide Auf Abdul Rahman al-Efery was killed when a rocket fired from a war plane hit one of the cars. Baghdadi was believed to be in the second car, which was not hit. 
 
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 In recent months, air strikes have been increasingly effective in targeting the Isis leadership. Baghdadi’s deputy, Abu Muslim al-Turkmani, and the head of the group’s military operations in Iraq were both killed in early December. 
 
 After seizing control of a large chunk of Iraq and Syria last June, and threatening Baghdad and Irbil, Isis has recently lost substantial ground in both countries. An offensive led by Shia militias and the Iraqi military took back Iraq’s fourth city, Tikrit, last month, as well as close to 7,000 sq km in the centre of the country. 
 
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 A Kurdish push from the north in January reclaimed close to 20,000 sq km. Both offensives appear to be paving the way for an assault in Mosul, which is not expected before the autumn. Isis remains in full control of Mosul, as well as Anbar province and much of eastern Syria. 
 
 The border between the two countries is largely redundant and, despite air strikes, the group remains in control of six crossing points that allow a ready flow of funds, fighters and weapons. Baghdadi had declared the swath of land from eastern Aleppo to central Iraq to be part of a caliphate that he leads. 
 
 While Baghdadi invokes authority as a religious leader, the constant threat from the skies has led to some of its command and strategic decisions being made by other members of the leadership. Since Baghdadi’s wounding, Isis’s military and Shura councils have become increasingly prominent in decision-making, the source close to the organisation revealed.
– Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is in rough shape after a March 18 airstrike near the Syrian border in western Iraq, sources tell the Guardian, but there are conflicting reports on the matter. The leader of ISIS initially faced life-threatening injuries as a result of the strike by the US-led coalition but is now recovering, one source says, but he adds that the leader isn't yet in a state that he can control the terrorist group as he once did. A western diplomat and an Iraqi adviser tell the Guardian that an airstrike took place that day in the al-Baaj district of Nineveh, targeting local ISIS leaders in a three-vehicle convoy. Three men were reportedly killed. The Iraqi official says al-Baghdadi was injured in that strike; however, the Pentagon says it can't confirm the report. A Pentagon rep says an airstrike did occur on the date in question, but it didn't target the leader or any other high-ranking officials. "We have no reason to believe it was Baghdadi," the rep tells the Daily Beast. Sources have inaccurately claimed that al-Baghdadi was wounded in airstrikes at least twice before, but Iraqi spokesman Brig. Gen. Saad Maan tells the BBC that al-Baghdadi was indeed injured this time. A Guardian source adds that the leader was known to hide out in al-Baaj because the US military "barely had a presence there" during the Iraq War. "It was the one part of Iraq that they hadn't mapped out." The Sunni tribal area has become a focus of US surveillance this year.