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    KABUL, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Four NATO soldiers lost their lives while 21 civilians were killed in a suicide car bombing on Thursday in the volatile southern Kandahar province of Afghanistan.

    Three soldiers of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were killed and six others wounded by suspected Taliban insurgents at about 12:30 a.m. near Pashmul village, west of Kandahar city, capital of Kandahar province, an ISAF press release said.

    The troops, who were working with Afghan forces to improve security along a main highway, were attacked by rocket propelled grenades from a school, it said.

    Three seriously wounded soldiers had been evacuated by helicopter to an ISAF medical facility in neighboring Helmand Province, while three others were evacuated by helicopter to a hospital at Kandahar Airfield.

    All the six are in good condition without life threatening injuries, the press release said.

    It didn't announce the nationality of the casualties, while 2,200 Canadian soldiers have been deployed in Kandahar province, a hotbed of Taliban insurgents.

    ISAF took command in southern Afghanistan, the Taliban's stronghold, from the U.S.-led coalition forces on Monday, thrusting the 26- nation NATO into its toughest combat mission in its 57-year history.

    Still on Thursday, a predawn roadside bomb attack killed a Canadian soldier of ISAF and wounded another also near Pashmul village.

    Hours later, three other Canadian soldiers on patrol were wounded in the same area by a roadside bomb.

    Also on Thursday, a suicide bombing killed 21 civilians and wounded 13 others at 2:00 p.m. local time in a crowded market in Panjwai district of Kandahar province, Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Yusuf Stanikzai told Xinhua, adding some children were among the casualties.

    Panjwai, a haven of the Taliban, lies some 30 km west of Kandahar city.

    No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the spokesman blamed the Taliban for the crime.

    Some NATO soldiers were patrolling near the market but suffered no casualties, a NATO spokesman said.

    Sayed Aziz, the provincial police chief, claimed the attack was aimed at the NATO troops.

    Stanikzai told Xinhua on Thursday that the police, backed by NATO aircraft, killed 22 Taliban militants in Garmser district of Helamend province late Wednesday, and five policemen were injured.

    However, a local police chief, Ghulam Rasool, said only 10 Taliban insurgents were killed in the conflict, according to some Afghan media.

    In southern Zabul province's capital Qalat, 12 highway policemen involved in robbery surrendered to the Taliban with a jeep and 10 assault rifles on Wednesday morning, provincial police Chief Noor Mohammad Paktin said Thursday.

    Afghanistan is suffering from increasing Taliban-linked violence this year, during which over 1,700 people, mostly Taliban extremists, have been killed.

    More than 70 foreign troops have also lost their lives in the war-weary central Asian country. Enditem