The death toll in a suicide bombing on a bus carrying Shiite pilgrims has risen to 36, according to Iraqi officials.

A suicide bomber struck Shiite pilgrims near a shrine north of Baghdad that has been a flashpoint in sectarian strife, killing at least 25 people, Iraqi police said today.

Insurgents today blew up the two minarets of the famous Golden Dome Shiite shrine in Samarra, where a 2006 bombing unleashed a wave of sectarian violence that bloodied Iraq for more than a year.