ANKARA, Turkey — A string of bombings, blamed on Kurdish rebels and targeting Turkey's security forces, killed at least 14 people and wounded more than 220 others, officials said Thursday.

Two of the attacks were car bombings that hit police stations in eastern Turkey, while a third — a roadside blast — targeted a military vehicle carrying soldiers in the southeast.

Authorities say the assaults were carried out by the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which has launched a campaign of car bombings targeting police stations or roadside bomb attacks against security force vehicles. Last week, PKK commander Cemil Bayik threatened increased attacks against police in Turkish cities.

The wave of attacks come as Turkey is focused on a clampdown on suspected followers of a movement led by U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, which the government accuses of orchestrating a failed military coup last month, that killed at least 270 people.

The first car bombing hit a police station in the eastern province of Van late Wednesday, killing a police officer and two civilians. At least 73 other people — 53 civilians and 20 police officers — were wounded, officials said.

Another car bombing hit police headquarters in the eastern city of Elazig early Thursday, killing at least five people, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. Officials said earlier 146 people were wounded.

In the southeastern province of Bitlis meanwhile, five soldiers were killed after an improvised explosive device was detonated as an armored vehicle was passing by, officials said. Five other soldiers were wounded. A government-paid village guard, helping the security forces was also killed in a clash with rebels in the province.

South Sudan rebel leader has fled country, spokesman says

KAMPALA, Uganda — South Sudan's rebel leader and former vice president has fled the country and was expected to emerge after weeks in hiding to speak to the press, a spokesman said Thursday, as the United Nations announced it had assisted him on part of his journey.

The U.N. involvement was likely to further anger a South Sudanese government that has accused the world body of interfering in its affairs after renewed fighting last month veered the country back toward civil war.

Riek Machar crossed the border into neighboring Congo and was airlifted to the capital, Kinshasa, a spokesman Mabior Garang said, adding that he was planning to travel to Ethiopia soon. The spokesman said Machar left South Sudan after a “botched attempt to assassinate” him. The U.N. indicated that Machar had been in danger.

Prosecutor: Scope of smuggling plot at Kansas prison ‘alarming'

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A prison drug-smuggling scheme in which seven people are charged may involve more than 90 inmates, perhaps five dozen outsiders and a “significant number” of the lockup's employees, according to a federal prosecutor in Kansas.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Erin Tomasic told a judge she assumes more Leavenworth Detention Center employees may be charged than the guard already being prosecuted in the case who, Tomasic said, “keeps identifying — at an alarming rate actually — new targets.”

Tomasic, according to transcripts from a July 21 hearing, did not quantify the number of workers under suspicion. The 1,126-bed lockup, separate from the federal prison in Leavenworth, is run by the for-profit Corrections Corporation of America.

Russian prosecutors blacklist another 2 U.S. organizations

MOSCOW — Russian prosecutors have declared another two U.S. non-profit organizations “undesirable” under a repressive law intended to tighten the Kremlin's tight control over the political landscape.

The Prosecutor General's office said Thursday that the activities of the International Republican Institute and the Media Development Investment Fund “pose a threat to the foundations of the constitutional order and security of the state.”

Earlier, five other U.S. nonprofit organizations have been blacklisted under a 2015 law intended to cut sources of foreign funding for Russian NGOs.

Amnesty International criticized the latest move as part of authorities' efforts to “isolate Russian civil society (and) intimidate human rights defenders.”

Suicide bombers hit Libyan troops in Sirte, kill 10

BENGHAZI, Libya — Islamic State suicide bombers attacked Libya's pro-government forces in the militant group's former stronghold, Sirte, on Thursday, detonating two cars bombs that killed 10 troops, officials said.

A spokesman for troops loyal to the U.N.-backed government who are fighting to liberate the city said the death toll is expected to rise because many of the 20 troops wounded were in critical condition.

Military officials said they believe the attack was carried out by Islamic State fighters who were already outside of Sirte. After the attack, pro-government forces launched a raid into a residential neighborhood, killing three Islamic State fighters.

Sirte is the Islamic State group's final bastion in the country, and Libyan troops have been forcing the militants into ever-smaller parts of the city.

Images show crowded, dirty Border Patrol cells in Arizona

TUCSON, Ariz. — Images filed as evidence in a lawsuit against the U.S. Border Patrol citing inhumane conditions in Arizona detention facilities show men jammed together under a space blanket trying to stay warm and a woman using a concrete floor strewn with trash to change a baby's diaper.

The photos made public Thursday are from surveillance video inside at least four Border Patrol stations.

They were submitted late Wednesday in a lawsuit against the Border Patrol for conditions described as disgusting in the agency's Tucson sector, which makes up most of Arizona.

The National Immigration Law Center and the ACLU argued in court that the images should be made public to help prove allegations that the Border Patrol routinely holds immigrants in extremely cold and dirty cells.

Clinton Foundation: The Clinton Foundation said Thursday it would not accept donations from corporations or foreign entities if Hillary Clinton is elected president. The decision comes amid criticism of how the foundation operated during her tenure as secretary of state, potentially allowing donors to seek special access.

Abortion ruling: A federal appeals court nullified key portions of a Texas abortion law — a legal formality to comply with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday declared unenforceable requirements that doctors performing abortions have admitting privileges at local hospitals.