In Afghanistan, funerals have begun for 37 people killed after a suicide bomber struck an education center Wednesday in the capital Kabul. Most of the dead were young women and men who were preparing for university entrance exams. The bombing was followed by an assault on an Afghan intelligence service base in Kabul by gunmen firing rocket-propelled grenades earlier today. Meanwhile, Taliban fighters overran a military outpost in Afghanistan’s northern Baghlan province, killing 44 soldiers and police officers. Elsewhere, U.S.-backed Afghan forces claimed to have taken control of most of the city of Ghazni on Wednesday, following some of the heaviest fighting Afghanistan has seen in years. The U.N. estimates 150 civilians died during the 5-day campaign, and local hospitals report they’re overwhelmed with the injured and the dead. This is Omid, a resident of Ghazni.

Omid: “It has been almost four days of insurgence in the city, but the government has not paid attention to the people here, and, as you can see, most of the markets have burnt down in the city.”

The violence came as the Taliban said it would no longer grant safe passage to workers with the International Committee of the Red Cross, accusing the agency of failing to support Taliban prisoners held by the U.S.-backed government in Kabul.