Baghdad, Iraq ? Iraqi insurgents set off bombs and fired rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons at military convoys, checkpoints and police patrols in a spate of violence Monday that killed 33 people and wounded dozens.

The terror group Al-Qaida in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for much of the bloodshed.

As the attacks persisted, so did negotiations to form Iraq’s first democratically elected government. Iraqi Kurds said they were close to a deal with the Shiite clergy-backed United Iraqi Alliance to secure many of their territorial demands and ensure the country’s secular character after its National Assembly convenes March 16.

The dominant Shiite Muslim alliance, however, said although it agreed that Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani would become Iraq’s president, it was still talking about other conditions set by the Kurds for their support in the 275-member legislative body.

The Shiite alliance controls 140 seats and need the 75 seats won by the Kurds in the Jan. 30 elections to muster the necessary two-thirds majority to elect a president and later seat their choice for prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

An alliance official said interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, whose party won 40 seats, refused an offer for a Cabinet post. Allawi’s office could not be reached for comment.

“Iraqis defied the terrorists and they went to the polling stations in order to see their elected representatives meet and debate the future of the country,” interim Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh, a Kurd, said of the decision to convene the assembly.

The wave of violence came as Dutch troops ended their mission in the southern city of Samawa and turned command of the area to the British, along with responsibility for 550 Japanese soldiers. The Dutch government last year decided to pull out its final 350 troops, despite requests from Britain and the United States.

Al-Qaida in Iraq purportedly claimed responsibility in an Internet statement for much of the bloodshed that killed 15 people Monday in and around Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. The assaults included a car bomb, three roadside bombs and small arms attacks on three checkpoints, said police Col. Mudhafar al-Jubbori

A car bomb also killed 12 people in Balad, southeast of Baqouba.