Most of the rebels were killed in an attack by foreign and Afghan troops on an insurgent stronghold around the Panjwayi area of Kandahar province that began early Saturday and continued into Sunday, a coalition spokeswoman said.

The bodies of 10 were discovered on Sunday while five were killed on Saturday, Captain Julie Roberge said.

The Canadian corporal, a reservist, was killed near Panjwayi while "engaging enemy elements," Lieutenant Commander Mark MacIntyre said.

Three other coalition soldiers, two of them Canadians, were wounded in Panjwayi on Saturday. One was evacuated to a military hospital in Germany with serious injuries, military officials said.

The Canadian was the 17th soldier from his country to be killed in Afghanistan since 2001, when US-led forces toppled the hardline Taliban regime.

An upsurge of Taliban-linked violence has killed more than 50 foreign soldiers in the country this year, most of them Americans.

Afghan, British, Canadian and US soldiers are involved in a major anti-Taliban operation, Mountain Thrust, that has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of militants since it was launched mid-May.

In other violence over the weekend a Peruvian soldier serving with a Spanish contingent with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was killed in a blast in the west of the country on Saturday.

The blast was probably caused by an anti-tank mine set off by remote control, Spanish Defence Minister Jose Antonio Alonso said Sunday.

Four other soldiers were wounded in the explosion about 60 kilometres (37 miles) from the city of Farah.