KABUL (AFP) - Afghanistan's Taleban insurgents on Tuesday claimed a suicide car bombing that targeted staff of the Supreme Court and killed 14 civilians in Kabul.

The militants said the attack was carried out to punish Afghan judges for sentencing to death Taleban prisoners held by the Afghan government.

"Today's attack was a warning should they (judges) continue to give tyrannical verdicts and intimidate (our) countrymen," said a copy of their statement sent to AFP.

President Hamid Karzai's administration has executed scores of prisoners in recent years including six Taleban who were hanged in November last year.

Hundreds of Taleban fighters, most of them captured by Afghan and NATO troops from the battlefield, are held in Afghanistan prisons.