New Delhi: Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been seriously injured in an air strike in Iraq, according to a report in The Guardian.

The report revealed that Baghdadi suffered serious injuries in March during an attack by by the US-led coalition. The leader suffered near-fatal injuries initially and has since made a slow recovery.

Baghdadi's injury led to urgent meetings of ISIS leaders, who thought he would die and made plans to name a new leader.

Al-Baghdadi, an ambitious Iraqi terrorist believed to be in his early 40s, has a $10 million US bounty on his head. Since taking over the reins of the group in 2010, he has transformed it from a local branch of al-Qaida into an independent transnational military force, positioning himself as perhaps the pre-eminent figure in the global jihadi community.

A US-led coalition has been launching airstrikes on Islamic State militants and facilities in Iraq and Syria for months as part of an effort to give Iraqi forces the time and space to mount a more effective offensive.

The Islamic State had gained ground across northern and western Iraq in a lightning advance in June and July 2014, causing several of Iraq's army and police divisions to fall into disarray.