A Taliban suicide bomber targeted NATO forces in Kabul on Tuesday, officials said, as the group step up attacks as part of their annual summer offensive.

Afghan troops and police are battling the Taliban alone this year in the first "fighting season" since NATO ended its combat mission and left local forces to take charge of security.

Kabul police spokesman Ebadullah Karimi said the attack in the southeastern part of the city was a suicide car bombing that wounded three people.

Karimi described the wounded as "foreigners", but there was no confirmation of their identity.

"We can confirm an attack on coalition forces occurred in Kabul at approximately 11:30am, We are gathering further information on this incident." a spokesperson for the coalition told AFP.

An AFP reporter at the site of the explosion said the police had cordoned off the area with ambulances rushing toward the blast site.

The Taliban claimed the attack in a message on their Twitter account.

Tuesday's attack comes a week after a Taliban suicide car bomber hit a NATO military convoy on the main road to Kabul airport, killing at least two Afghan civilians and wounding around 17.

NATO’s combat mission formally ended in December after 13 years, but a small follow-up foreign force named Resolute Support has stayed on to train and support local security forces.

The Taliban launched their annual spring-summer offensive in late April, vowing nationwide attacks.