Press TV - A top Iraqi official says the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group�s leader Ibrahim al-Samarrai, aka Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is �alive� and is being treated in a field hospital in Syria, less than a year after sources announced the death of the notorious ringleader.

�We have irrefutable information and documents from sources within the terrorist organization that al-Baghdadi is still alive and hiding� in Jazira region, in Syria's northeastern province of Hasakah, Iraqi government daily al-Sabah�quoted Abu Ali al-Basri, the head of the Iraqi interior ministry�s intelligence and counter-terrorism operations service, as saying on Monday.

He further said that Baghdadi was suffering from �injuries, diabetes and fractures to the body and legs that prevent him from walking without assistance.� Basri added that the Daesh�s leader had sustained injuries in �air raids against� the group�s �strongholds in Iraq.�

Last week, Iraqi authorities published a list of "internationally wanted terrorist leaders� headed by the self-proclaimed Daesh �caliph�, born in 1971, under the name of Ibrahim al-Samarrai, known by his nom de guerre Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Back in June last year, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov said that it was �highly likely� that Baghdadi had been eliminated in an airstrike of the Russian Air Force on a militant command post in a southern suburb of the Syrian city of Raqqah in late May.

A month later, an unnamed local source in Iraq�s Nineveh province told Iraq�s Arabic-language al-Sumeria satellite television network that Daesh had announced the death of its leader in a brief statement released via the terrorist group�s media outlet in the center of Tal Afar city, situated 63 kilometers west of Mosul, without providing further details.

A few days after the al-Sumeria�s report, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said that there was no evidence that Baghdadi was dead, despite the Takfiri group�s confirmation that its ringleader �has been killed.�

"If we knew, we would tell you -- right now, I can't confirm or deny it," Mattis said at a press conference at the time, adding, "Our approach is we assume he's alive until it's proven otherwise, and right now I can't prove it otherwise.�

On July 16 last year and just two days after Mattis�s remarks, al-Basri said that Baghdadi was alive and was hiding in Syria, Saudi Arabia�s state television Al Arabiya reported.

Daesh started a campaign of terror against Syria and Iraq in 2013 and 2014, respectively. It, however, lost all of its strongholds in both Arab countries last year thanks to the Syrian army�s counter-terrorism offensives, backed by Russian air cover, and Iraqi army troops, backed by pro-government paramilitary forces known as Popular Mobilization�Units (PMU), also known in Arabic as Hashd al-Sha�abi.