Lebanese security forces have detained a wife and son of Islamic State (IS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi near the border with Syria, the army says.

The pair, whose names were not given, were picked up by military intelligence after entering Lebanon 10 days ago.

The al-Safir newspaper reported that Baghdadi's wife was being questioned at the Lebanese defence ministry.

In June, Baghdadi was named the leader of the "caliphate" created by IS in the parts of Syria and Iraq it controls.

Last month, the group denied reports that he had been killed or injured in an air strike by US-led forces near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

It released an audio recording purportedly of Baghdadi in which he said the caliphate was expanding and called for "volcanoes of jihad" to erupt.
'Second wife'

Describing them as "a valuable catch", al-Safir said that, in co-ordination with foreign intelligence services, the IS leader's wife and son were detained at a border crossing near the town of Arsal while trying to enter Lebanon from Syria with forged papers.

They were currently being held for interrogation at the defence ministry's headquarters in al-Yarza, in the hills overlooking Beirut, it added.

A security source told the AFP news agency that the woman was a Syrian citizen and that her son was eight or nine years old.

"It is his second wife," the source added.

BBC