Baghdad, Dec 3 (IANS): The Iraqi interior ministry said Wednesday that a woman recently detained in Lebanon is not the wife of the Islamic State (IS) group leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, but a sister of a convicted terrorist.

"The woman who was arrested by the Lebanese authorities is Saja Abdul Hamid al-Dulaimi, the sister of Omar Abdel-Hamid al-Dulaimi, who is a detainee of the (Iraqi) authorities and is sentenced to death for his involvement in bombings in Basra and Nasiriyah (in southern Iraq)," Xinhua quoted the ministry as saying in a statement.

Saja had fled to Syria and was detained by the Syrian authorities before being released in an exchange deal for kidnapped nuns by Islamic rebels, the statement said, adding that al-Baghdadi has two wives, but there is no one "in the name of Saja al-Dulaimi".

Saja's sister Duaa is also a suicide bomber who was captured in Iraq's Kurdistan region after failing to blow herself up, the statement said, adding that their father is a wanted terrorist and an Al Qaeda associate, who joined the terrorist organisation's affiliate, the Nusra Front.

Tuesday, reports said that the Lebanese army had arrested a wife and a son of the IS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, at a border checkpoint.

The IS has taken large swathes of land in Iraq and Syria, declaring a "caliphate" over the territory it controls.

Baghdadi, an Iraqi, incited attacks against the rulers of Saudi Arabia in a recent speech.