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Official: Iran Airstrikes Target Kurdish Groups in Iraq 

This photo provided by Iraqi Parliament Media Office shows Mohammed Shia al-Sudani speaking during the parliamentary session to vote on the new government in Baghdad, Iraq, Oct.27, 2022. (Iraqi Parliament Media Office via AP)
This photo provided by Iraqi Parliament Media Office shows Mohammed Shia al-Sudani speaking during the parliamentary session to vote on the new government in Baghdad, Iraq, Oct.27, 2022. (Iraqi Parliament Media Office via AP)
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Official: Iran Airstrikes Target Kurdish Groups in Iraq 

This photo provided by Iraqi Parliament Media Office shows Mohammed Shia al-Sudani speaking during the parliamentary session to vote on the new government in Baghdad, Iraq, Oct.27, 2022. (Iraqi Parliament Media Office via AP)
This photo provided by Iraqi Parliament Media Office shows Mohammed Shia al-Sudani speaking during the parliamentary session to vote on the new government in Baghdad, Iraq, Oct.27, 2022. (Iraqi Parliament Media Office via AP)

Iran on Tuesday launched a new round of strikes at Iranian Kurdish dissident groups based in Iraq’s northern, semi-autonomous Kurdish region, a spokesman said. 

Iranian opposition groups were targeted in two locations, in the areas of Perdi and Degala, according to a tweet by the local government's spokesman, Lawk Ghafuri. He told The Associated Press that it was not yet clear whether there were any casualties in the strikes. 

No other details were immediately available. A previous round of Iranian strikes late Sunday night killed a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Iran, or KDPI, one of the Iranian Kurdish dissident groups based in Iraq. 

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said Iraq condemns the strikes. He told reporters in Baghdad on Tuesday that the national security council would meet next week to draft plans on deploying security forces to strengthen border controls. 

“So there will be no justification for the bombing operations,” al-Sudani said. 

Earlier on Tuesday, al-Sudani met with the Iraqi Kurdish region's president, Nechirvan Barzani. They discussed “the security issue in the Iraqi border areas,” according to a statement from Sudani's office. 

The two “emphasized cooperation to protect Iraq’s sovereignty, reject repeated violations, and work to prevent the use of Iraqi territory ... for attacking any neighboring country,” it said. 

Iran has said the strikes are necessary to protect its borders, while Iraqi Kurdish officials condemn the missile and drone attacks as unprovoked aggression on Iraq. 

The strikes and subsequent announcement of strengthening border controls come in the wake of a visit to Baghdad last week by Iran’s Quds Force commander Esmail Ghaani.  

Some Iranian Kurdish groups have been engaged in a low-intensity conflict with Tehran since the 1979 revolution and have sought refuge in neighboring Iraq where they established bases. 

Iran alleges that these groups are inciting anti-government protests in Iran and smuggling weapons into the country, which the Iranian Kurdish groups deny. Iran has not provided evidence to back up the claims. 

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Typhoon Gaemi Weakens to Tropical Storm as It Moves Inland Carrying Rain toward Central China

In this photo released by the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense, Taiwanese soldiers clear debris in the aftermath of Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung county in southwestern Taiwan, Friday, July 26, 2024. (Taiwan Ministry of National Defense via AP)
In this photo released by the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense, Taiwanese soldiers clear debris in the aftermath of Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung county in southwestern Taiwan, Friday, July 26, 2024. (Taiwan Ministry of National Defense via AP)
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Typhoon Gaemi Weakens to Tropical Storm as It Moves Inland Carrying Rain toward Central China

In this photo released by the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense, Taiwanese soldiers clear debris in the aftermath of Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung county in southwestern Taiwan, Friday, July 26, 2024. (Taiwan Ministry of National Defense via AP)
In this photo released by the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense, Taiwanese soldiers clear debris in the aftermath of Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung county in southwestern Taiwan, Friday, July 26, 2024. (Taiwan Ministry of National Defense via AP)

Tropical storm Gaemi brought rain to central China on Saturday as it moved inland after making landfall at typhoon strength on the country's east coast Thursday night.

The storm felled trees, flooded streets and damaged crops in China but there were no reports of casualties or major damage. Eight people died in Taiwan, which Gaemi crossed at typhoon strength before heading over open waters to China.

The worst loss of life, however, was in a country that Gaemi earlier passed by but didn't strike directly: the Philippines. A steadily climbing death toll has reached 34, authorities there said Friday. The typhoon exacerbated seasonal monsoon rains in the Southeast Asian country, causing landslides and severe flooding that stranded people on rooftops as waters rose around them.

China Gaemi weakened to a tropical storm since coming ashore Thursday evening in coastal Fujian province, but it is still expected to bring heavy rains in the coming days as it moves northwest to Jiangxi, Hubei and Henan provinces.

About 85 hectares (210 acres) of crops were damaged in Fujian province and economic losses were estimated at 11.5 million yuan ($1.6 million), according to Chinese media reports. More than 290,000 people were relocated because of the storm.

Elsewhere in China, several days of heavy rains this week in Gansu province left one dead and three missing in the country's northwest, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Taiwan Residents and business owners swept out mud and mopped up water Friday after serious flooding that sent cars and scooters floating down streets in parts of southern and central Taiwan. Some towns remained inundated with waist-deep water.

Eight people died, several of them struck by falling trees and one by a landslide hitting their house. More than 850 people were injured and one person was missing, the emergency operations center said.

Visiting hard-hit Kaohsiung in the south Friday, President Lai Ching-te commended the city's efforts to improve flood control since a 2009 typhoon that brought a similar amount of rain and killed 681 people, Taiwan's Central News Agency reported.

Lai announced that cash payments of $20,000 New Taiwan Dollars ($610) would be given to households in severely flooded areas.

A cargo ship sank off the coast near Kaohsiung Harbor during the typhoon, and the captain's body was later pulled from the water, the Central News Agency said. A handful of other ships were beached by the storm.

Philippines At least 34 people died in the Philippines, mostly because of flooding and landslides triggered by days of monsoon rains that intensified when the typhoon — called Carina in the Philippines — passed by the archipelago’s east coast.

The victims included 11 people in the Manila metro area, where widespread flooding trapped people on the roofs and upper floors of their houses, police said. Some drowned or were electrocuted in their flooded communities.

Earlier in the week, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered authorities to speed up efforts in delivering food and other aid to isolated rural villages, saying people may not have eaten for days.

The bodies of a pregnant woman and three children were dug out Wednesday after a landslide buried a shanty in the rural mountainside town of Agoncillo in Batangas province.