A car bomb exploded near a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims north of Baghdad on Monday, killing eight people.

A car bomb exploded near a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims north of Baghdad on Monday, killing eight people, Iraqi police and a local official said.

The explosion also wounded at least 20 people, sources added.

The pilgrims were on their way to visit the holy shrine of Samarra, which was bombed in February 2006.

Also on Monday, a car bomb near a market in Baghdad killed 12 people and wounded at least 20, a police officer and a medical official said.

The bombing in the Shaab area of north Baghdad brings the two-day death toll from violence in Iraq to 63.

The car bombing came minutes after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki vowed to overhaul the country's security strategy, amid a wave of violence that has killed 340 people so far in May.

Violence in Iraq has fallen from its peak in 2006 and 2007 but attacks are still common, with more than 200 people killed in each of the first five months of this year.