Signs of desperation: Islamic State offers rewards for capture of foreign 'spies'

While leaders of the Islamic State have claimed that the airstrikes by the U.S. and coalition allies are ineffective, it has garnered a reaction from them.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Leadership have distributed paper fliers in the north of Syria that they blame foreign spies for the accuracy and devastation the airstrikes are causing.

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The group is offering rewards to anyone who can give them "an agent collaborating with the Crusaders," or "information leading to such spies."

The news has circled social media platforms, and the reward currently stands at about $5,000.

The U.S. has been increasing the number of airstrikes since the campaign began in the summer, and Iraqi media reported last week that an airstrike in Haweija in northern Iraq killed the Islamic State's governor of the city, Aboul Hassan.

Airstrikes also killed two senior Islamic State commanders near the city of Mosul.

The U.S. has been attempting to gather intelligence on the Islamic State, a considerable challenge for Westerners because of the group's isolationist and xenophobic vetting process.

Only this month has the Islamic State become more open to foreign-especially western-jihadists. Previously, foreign fighters needed at least three referrals from active members of the Islamic State to join the group.

This change in policy is a clear sign that the Islamic State is hurting.

A previous airstrike was thought to have killed the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, but that proved to be just a rumor when the leader released a new audio tape.

Despite that, it seems foreign spies may not just be a phantom concern for the Islamic State.

"We hit a military convoy that we knew ISIS leadership was part of," said former deputy CIA Director Mike Morall during an interview on CBS.

Regardless of whether Baghdadi was part of the convoy or not, "what's really important here is that we found a leadership target and we went after it... that takes very good intelligence."

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