Kabul - A Dutch and a Canadian soldier were killed in separate roadside bombings in southern Afghanistan while six Afghan civilians, including a child and a woman, were killed in a similar attack in the same region, officials said Monday.

The two soldiers with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were killed Sunday in Kandahar and Uruzgan provinces, the alliance said.

The Canadian Defence Ministry identified its deceased soldier as Sergeant Prescott Shipway, an infantryman, and said seven other soldiers were wounded in the roadside blast in Kandahar's volatile Panjwayi district.

"The injured soldiers are reported to be in good condition," the ministry said in a statement.

The recent death brought to 97 the number of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan since their deployment in 2002. Canada has about 2,500 soldiers stationed in Kandahar.

One Dutch soldier was also killed and five were injured Sunday when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in Uruzghan, the Dutch commander-in-chief, General Peter van Uhm, said in Amsterdam.

Jos ten Brinke, 21, is the third Dutch soldier to be killed by a roadside bomb. The condition of one of the wounded soldiers was described as critical.

A total of 17 Dutch soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since they started their mission in August 2006.

In another incident, six Afghan civilians, including a child and a woman, were killed when their passenger van was struck by a roadside mine in the Nawbahar district of the southern province of Zabul, said Gholam Jailani Farahi, deputy provincial police chief.

Farahi said two other civilians were wounded in the attack, which he blamed on Taliban militants.

Taliban militants, who lost power in late 2001 in a US-led military invasion, have waged a bloody insurgency against the Western-backed Afghan government and about 
70,000 international troops stationed in the country.

As part of their campaign, the insurgents have recently begun to rely heavily on the use of roadside and suicide attacks.

Roadside attacks rose 50 per cent in the first eight months of this year, compared with the same period last year, NATO officials said. (dpa)