Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi wounded in airstrike: Iraqi officials

The head of the bloodthirsty terror group ISIS was wounded in an air strike, Iraqi officials said — but the Pentagon did not confirm the report.

Iraq’s Defense and Interior ministries issued statements saying Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had been wounded in western Anbar Province on Saturday, though neither agency elaborated.

An Interior Ministry intelligence official told The Associated Press that Baghdadi was wounded by an Iraqi air strike as he met with militants in Qaim.

The U.S. Central Command said Friday it conducted two air strikes near Qaim that destroyed a militant armored vehicle and two ISIS checkpoints.

But confusion remained. Defense Minister Khalid Obeidi took to Facebook to say Baghdadi had been wounded — but in the northern city of Mosul, an ISIS stronghold where the U.S. has conducted air strikes.

It is unclear how badly Baghdadi was hurt, if at all.

“We have no information to corroborate reports that al-Baghdadi has been injured,” a U.S. Central Command spokesman, Air Force Col. Patrick Ryder, said Sunday.

Baghdadi, believed to be in his early 40s, has a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head. Since taking over the group in 2010, he has transformed it from a branch of Al Qaeda into the world’s Public Enemy No. 1.

The conflicting reports of his wounding came as President Obama said the U.S.-led coalition was about to go on the offensive against the Islamic State militants, who have seized large parts of Syria and Iraq, massacred thousands of people, beheaded Westerners and drawn U.S. troops and warplanes back into the region.

Obama on Friday authorized 1,500 more American fighters to join the battle.

“Rather than just try to halt (ISIS’) momentum, we’re now in a position to start going on some offense,” Obama said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

“The air strikes have been very effective in degrading (ISIS’) abilities and slowing the advances,” the President added. “Now what we need is ground troops — Iraqi ground troops — that can start pushing them back.”