KABUL, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- Eleven Taliban insurgents were killed by ISAF air raid in the volatile southern Kandahar province of Afghanistan, a military spokesman said Wednesday.

    Some Taliban militants hid near the Kandahar-Kabul highway in Jalai district and attempted to attack Afghan and ISAF troops on Tuesday night, said Maj. Scott Lundy, spokesman of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

    ISAF detected them and launched a preemptive air raid, killing 11 militants, he added.

    Kandahar, where 2,100 Canadian troops of ISAF are deployed, has been a stronghold of Taliban insurgents, who attack foreign and government troops frequently.

    A suicide bomber hit an ISAF convoy in Kandahar city, the provincial capital, on Tuesday, killing one Canadian soldier and wounding three others. One Afghan civilian was also killed.

    ISAF, which has about 21,000 troops, took command in southern Afghanistan from coalition forces on July 31, while coalition troops are mainly deployed in eastern Afghanistan to hunt down militants there.

    Afghanistan is suffering from a rise of Taliban-linked violence this year, during which over 1,800 people, mostly Taliban insurgents, have been killed. Enditem