BAGHDAD, Nov 10 (agencies): Iraqi military forces reached the centre of the northern city of Baiji on Sunday in an effort to break an Islamic State siege of the country's biggest refinery, triggering fierce clashes with the militants, according to an army colonel and a witness.
Separately, contradictory reports emerged over the fate of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi after US-led air strikes against the group in at least two locations in Iraq on Friday night.
The United States said it had no information to indicate Baghdadi had been hit. State television cited reports that Baghdadi had been wounded. It gave no further details.
Baghdadi's fighters seized much of northern Iraq five months ago in a lightning offensive which also saw them capture the city of Baiji and surround its oil refinery, halting production and besieging a detachment of government troops there.
The colonel said Iraqi troops entered Baiji, a city of about 200,000 people, from the south and west and took over the al-Tamim neighbourhood and city centre.
Islamic State had placed bombs along roads in Baiji and deployed snipers to keep government forces from advancing, tactics used in other cities held by the ultra-hardline Sunni group, which controls swathes of both Iraq and Syria.
"The areas taken so far are 6 km (4 miles) away from Baiji's refinery," the colonel said, adding 12 militants had been killed.
Baiji resident Sultan al-Janabi told Reuters by telephone from his house that clashes had been raging since the advance, the first time security forces reached the city centre since launching a new encirclement strategy at the end of last month.
Major Curtis Kellogg, spokesman at the US military's Central Command, said it had no information to corroborate press reports that Baghdadi was wounded in any strike on the city of Mosul in the north and al-Qaim to the west.
"We cannot confirm that Baghdadi was present when we struck the convoy near Mosul on Friday night," he said.
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