(Adds teenager killed in paragraphs 1-2) KABUL, March 19 (Reuters) - A U.S. embassy convoy was hit by a Taliban suicide car bomber in Kabul on Monday, killing an Afghan teenager by the road and wounding officials in the motorcade, police and an embassy spokesman said. A 14-year-old boy was killed in the attack, which took place on a main road leading east out of the Afghan capital which is often used by NATO and U.S.-led coalition troops, police said. Several embassy officials and pedestrians were wounded, U.S. embassy spokesman Joe Mellott said, adding that the injuries of some officials were "serious". U.S. Ambassador Ronald Neumann was not in the convoy. Western troops had sealed off the site of the attack, one police officer told Reuters from the scene, and a helicopter hovered above. A Reuters photographer saw, from a distance, smoke rising from a car at the scene. Mullah Dadullah, a senior Taliban commander, claimed responsibility for the attack and said several U.S. soldiers had been killed in the blast. The rebels planned more attacks, he told Reuters by satellite phone from a secret location. The attack comes amid an increase in Taliban raids, including suicide attacks, in recent weeks as fighting picks up after a relative winter lull. NATO launched an offensive in southern Afghanistan this month to try to pre-empt a spring offensive by the rebels.
