Nine journalists were among 25 people killed when a coordinated double suicide bombing struck the Afghan capital in an Isil attack deliberately targeting the media on Monday.

A suicide bomber on a motorbike struck close to intelligence service offices in central Kabul and then a second attacker posing as a reporter later detonated among journalists gathering at the scene.

A statement on a website affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) said the extremists carried out the rush hour attack in the Shash Darak area of the city.

The blast was the latest in a relentless string of bloody, mass casualty bombings that have struck the country.

Last week, an Isil suicide bomber attacked a voter registration centre in Kabul, killing 60 people, while in March the extremists killed 31 at a Shiite shrine in the city.

The latest dead included Shah Marai, chief photographer in the country for the French news agency Agence France-Presse, as well as journalists from local broadcasters.