KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A suspected suicide bomber detonated explosives in a car near a U.S. military convoy today in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, killing himself and wounding an American soldier and two passers-by, officials said.

The convoy was attacked as it drove through the city, a former Taliban stronghold and the site of a string of recent suicide bombings.

One U.S. soldier was only slightly hurt, said Sgt. J.C. Woodring, a U.S. military spokesman in the capital, Kabul.

Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid identified the wounded passers-by as a woman and a child. Both were taken to a local hospital.

The blast follows a string of suicide attacks and comes days after a top Taliban rebel commander, Mullah Dadullah, claimed that more than 200 insurgents were willing to kill themselves in assaults on U.S. forces and their allies.

Afghanistan's government dismissed the claim as propaganda, though President Hamid Karzai said last month that he expects attacks to continue.

Last year was the deadliest in Afghanistan since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001 for harboring Osama bin Laden. The fighting killed about 1,600 people as militants belonging to the Taliban, al-Qaida and other groups have stepped up attacks.