KANDAHAR, July 9: A Canadian soldier and 10 militants were killed on Sunday in fierce fighting near an opium-rich Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan, the military said.

The battle took place in southern Kandahar province’s Zharew district, which abuts the Panjwayi area, where Canadian and Afghan troops have fought militants since early Saturday in support of Operation Mountain Thrust, a region-wide offensive targeting the Taliban.

Canadian military spokesman Maj. Marc Theriault said Cpl. Anthony Boneca was killed during a ‘combined coalition-Afghan operation’ early on Sunday.

A coalition patrol found the bodies of 10 militants on Sunday killed in a coalition airstrike in Panjwayi, the military said in a statement.

Two Canadian troops were reported wounded in Panjwayi violence on Saturday.

At least 18 Canadian soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since 2002.

Four were killed in an April roadside bomb blast in the deadliest attack against the 2,300-strong Canadian contingent since deployment to Kandahar in February.

Meanwhile Britain’s defence secretary, Des Browne, is expected to announce on Monday the deployment of hundreds of extra British troops and additional military equipment to southern Afghanistan to combat the resurgent Taliban threat, British defence officials said on Sunday.

Browne is expected to make the announcement in Britain’s House of Commons after military commanders urgently requested reinforcements in the volatile southern Helmand province, the officials said.

Six British troops have been killed there in a month and Browne acknowledged on Saturday that a British deployment into the south had ‘energised opposition’ from a resurgent Taliban.

Britain has around 5,000 troops in Afghanistan, with 3,000 of those in Helmand — where soldiers will head a Nato-led peacekeeping mission at the end of July.

Separately, Spain’s defence minister announced on Sunday that an explosion the previous day in western Afghanistan that killed a Peruvian solder and slightly wounded four Spanish troops was probably caused by a remote-controlled four kilogram anti-vehicle landmine.

The soldiers were travelling in a nine-vehicle convoy.

Jorge Arnaldo Hernandez was the first Peruvian killed in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion that toppled the Taliban regime.—AP