"An intelligence force affiliated to the Iraqi government was due to carry out the assassination plan on Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the ISIL leader, in Mosul, the capital city of Nineveh province," Nahlah al-Hababi told FNA on Wednesday.

"The Iraqi intelligence forces staged unique operations to assassinate Baghdadi but he fled the scene in the last minutes," she added.

The London-based Guardian newspaper had reported in May that Baghdadi remains incapacitated due to suspected spinal damage and is being treated by two doctors who travel to his hideout from the group’s stronghold of Mosul two months after being injured in a US air strike in Northwestern Iraq.

Three sources close to the ISIL confirmed that Baghdadi’s wounds could mean he would never again lead the terrorist group.