The leader of the so-called Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has been seriously wounded in an air-strike, according to a report in The Guardian.

Iraq based sources have said Baghdadi, the self-proclaimed leader of a caliphate stretching across Iraq and Syria, has ceded day to day control of the group after he suffered serious injuries in a coalition led air-strike in western Iraq last month. The report claims the injuries were life-threatening at one point, but Bahdadi has been making a recovery.

The strike reportedly took place on March 18 in the al-Baaj district of Nineveh, a city which borders Syria. The strike attacked a three-car convoy in which Baghdadi was travelling, although officials leading the operation were unaware of Baghdadi’s presence when they ordered the strike.

Hisham al-Hashimi, an Iraqi official who advises Baghdad on Isis, told the Guardian Baghdadi, “was wounded in al-Baaj ... on 18 March with a group that was with him.”

A Pentagon spokesperson said they could not confirm the report.

Baghdadi is reported to have chosen the al-Baaj, a Sunni tribal area, area as it was under less intense US scrutiny than other areas of Iraq during the recent American occupation of the country. The Guardian reports that the area has long been seen as a safe haven for jihadists and a smuggling corridor between Iraq and Syria. The area has however come under more intense US surveillance in recent months.

There have been previous reports of attacks in which Baghdadi was wounded, in November and December of last year, although these transpired to be inaccurate. In December he was in a convoy attacked by US jets near Mosul, although the car he was travelling in was not hit.

With the backing of coalition air-strikes, Iraqi forces and Shia militias have been gradually pushing back Islamic State forces, recently regaining control of the city of Tikrit and vast swathes of territory in the centre of Iraq. Kurdish forces battling the Islamists have also made significant gains in the north.