A suicide car bomb near German embassy in Afghan capital Kabul Saturday morning killed at least three Afghan civilians and wounded 11 others including four U.S. service members officials and eye witnesses said.

The incident occurred in a street between German embassy and the U.S. main military compound at 09:50 a.m. local time destroyed a vehicle of U.S. servicemen and shattered windowpanes of German embassy and houses close to the site.

Three civilians were killed and 11 others including four U.S. servicemen were injured, according to eye witnesses at the site.

A statement of U.S.-led Coalition said "four U.S. service members have been wounded but the injuries are not life- threatening at this time."

It added that the incident is under investigation.

Afghan Interior ministry spokesman Zamarai Bashari said that only seven persons all of them civilians were injured in the blast.

This is the first deadly car bombing in the Afghan capital since beginning this year for which Taliban insurgents have claimed responsibility.

Zabihullah Mujahed, the purported Taliban spokesman told Xinhua via mobile phone from an unknown hideout that Taliban took responsibility for that assault and their target was German diplomats whose vehicles were attacked by suicide bombing when they were about to get into embassy compound.

Mujahed claimed that a suicide bomber named Shamsul Rahman from Kabul carried out this attack on German embassy.

Earlier, witness told Xinhua that the bloody attack occurred when a U.S. servicemen' vehicle was passing the area close to German embassy in a fortified area.

Xinhua's reporter saw at the site that a vehicle of the U.S. servicemen was destroyed in the blast.

Conflicts and Taliban-linked insurgency have left more than 5, 000 people dead in Afghanistan.

(Xinhua News Agency January 17, 2009)