As caliphate crumbles, Islamic State lashes out in Iraq

Iraqi Special Operations Forces (ISOF) gather near a building of the University of Mosul during a battle with Islamic State militants. REUTERS/Ahmed Saad

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two days after Iraqi forces launched a new push against Islamic State in Mosul, bomb blasts ripped through a marketplace in central Baghdad - the start of a spate of attacks that appear to signal a shift in tactics by the Islamist group.

The Sunni jihadists have targeted Shi'ite Muslim civilians. Raids on police and army posts in other cities, also claimed by Islamic State, have accompanied the bombings.