A top commander of the so-called ’Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’ (ISIL) Omar al-Shishani, known as Omar the Chechen, was "seriously injured" in a recent US strike in Syria but not killed.

A top commander of the so-called 'Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant' (ISIL) Omar al-Shishani, known as Omar the Chechen, was "seriously injured" in a recent US strike in Syria but not killed, a monitoring group said Wednesday, after a US official said the militant had "likely died" in the attack.

The opposition Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that according to its sources, the March 4 strike had indeed targeted a convoy of the wanted terrorist, killing his bodyguards, but he himself "was seriously injured" and taken to hospital.

"He's not dead," the Observatory's director Rami Abdel Rahman said.