AT LEAST 37 people were killed, including 11 children and nine journalists, by terrorist attacks in Afghanistan today.

The carnage wrought by two suicide bombers in Kabul and another in Kandahar marked 17 years since the US invasion of the country in 2001 and nearly four years since former US president Barack Obama declared the long war over.

Responsibility for the Kabul bombings was claimed by Isis, targeting the central Shash Darak area of the capital, home to Afghan intelligence, Nato headquarters and several foreign embassies.

An initial motorbike-mounted bomber prompted a scramble by police, emergency services, reporters and photographers to the scene. The second bomber posed as a member of the press pack and arrived with them, accounting for the number of journalists’ deaths.

The slain media workers included staff of local channels such as Tolo TV as well as some working for international agencies including Agence France-Presse and Radio Free Europe.

Reporters Without Borders said the massacre was the deadliest attack targeting journalists since the war began.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani condemned the attacks as war crimes aimed at destroying “national and democratic processes, reporters and freedom of speech.”

No immediate claim was made for the Kandahar bombing, in which 11 children from a madrasa religious school died. It appears the children had approached a passing Nato convoy “for fun,” according to local politician Abdul Rahim Ayubi, when a bomb struck, killing them and wounding 16 others, including eight Romanian soldiers.

Another journalist, who worked for the BBC's Afghan service, was also killed yesterday in a separate attack.

Ahmad Shah was shot dead in the eastern province of Khost.

BBC World Service Director Jamie Angus called it a "devastating loss."