Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been seriously injured in an air strike and is no longer in control of the terrorist group , according to an Iraqi source . The source said that he was wounded by an attack from the US-led coalition while travelling in a three-car convoy in March in Nineveh , Iraq . At first his chances of survival were deemed by his lieutenants to be low , but he pulled through . Scroll down for video . Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ( pictured ) has been seriously injured in an air strike and is no longer in control of the terrorists , according to an Iraqi source . However , he was left so weakened that his inner circle reportedly mooted the idea of naming a new leader . He is slowly recovering but does not have the reins of the organisation , according to The Guardian . Two officials confirmed to the paper that the strike on the convoy did indeed take place , on March 18 in the al-Baaj district of Nineveh , not far from the Syrian border . One , a Western diplomat , told the paper that Coalition generals weren ’ t sure whether al-Baghdadi was in the convoy . News of the attack follows contradictory accounts of al-Baghdadi being killed in air strikes in November and December . Another , an Iraqi expert on Isis used by the government in Baghdad in an advisory capacity , revealed that he had in fact been wounded . He said : ‘ Yes , he was wounded in al-Baaj near the village of Umm al-Rous on 18 March with a group that was with him. ’ This area is known to be largely lawless and a hotbed of jihadi activity , with very little Coalition air presence . Raffaello Pantucci , Director of International Security Studies for defence think tank the Royal United Services Institute , told MailOnline that it ’ s entirely plausible that the infamous leader had been hit , but warned that it might not have a long-term impact on the group if he did n't survive . He said : ‘ We ’ ve heard these stories before . It 's possible , as they would be going after him and they would be trying to drone him , but it ’ s right to be suspicious . 'If he was killed it would have a big effect on the group as a lot of the group is wrapped up in his identity . The whole of Islamic State is built on success and if the leader is bumped off it ’ s harder to say you ’ re winning . ‘ But it ’ s quite a resilient group . They would do a PR piece on it and say he ’ s gone to a better place – but coherence often comes from leadership . ‘ However , it would not mean the end of the group by any stretch. ’ Last year there were two reports that Baghdadi had been wounded , but they turned out to be inaccurate . He escaped death in December when US jets attacked a two-car convoy on the outskirts of Mosul . 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 . Figures from February showed allied airstrikes , including those carried out by British warplanes , had killed more than 6,000 fighters since September . The figure included more than half of the militants on the IS ruling council . Among the dead jihadists was also Abu Muslim al-Turkmani , a former Iraqi army lieutenant colonel considered Baghdadi ’ s number two and the most senior IS militant in Iraq . His death and that of as many as nine others on the 18-man leadership council forced Baghdadi to promote local warlords to the status of regional commanders , as his inner circle of trusted advisers and battle-hardened loyalists became increasingly small . Baghdadi , 43 , was the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq before founding the Islamic State in Iraq in 2010 , while he was declared head of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria in 2013 . In June last year , the Islamic State declared itself a caliphate , with al-Baghdadi declared as its ‘ Caliph ’ or ruler .
Iraqi source said he was wounded after his three-car convoy was attacked . Air strike is thought to have taken place on Last year near Syrian border . He is slowly recovering but reportedly does not have reins of the group .