Canadians soldiers have thwarted what appears to have been a suicide bombing attempt by a man who tried to drive a bomb-filled vehicle into their patrol near Kandahar city.

A news release from the Canadian military said the Canadian troops repeatedly warned the driver of the sport utility vehicle to stop. They opened fire after he kept driving, killing the suspect.

After the attack, which happened in the afternoon on Jan. 1 in the Shah Wali Khot district, the Canadian soldiers found three large explosive devices in the SUV.

"They are two 250-kilogram old Russian ammunition explosives, as well as one 100-kilogram explosive from the old Russian era," CTV's Steve Chao told Canada AM on Friday from Afghanistan.

"We understand that all together this is one of the largest ammunition finds found in a suicide bomber vehicle and it could have inflicted heavy damage against Canada's military and Canadian soldiers on patrol."

Maj. David Warnke told reporters that had the explosives gone off they would likely have killed people as far away as 1,500 metres.

"This is an unusual attack. It would have been a spectacular attack, and it would have been effective against a coalition force armoured vehicle. They knew what they were doing," Warnke said.

"They tried to make a spectacular detonation with (an aircraft bomb)," he said, noting that the Taliban may have found a cache of weapons from when the Russians occupied Afghanistan.

A short time after the first attack, a second vehicle also sped towards the patrol. The military said the soldiers fired on that vehicle after it didn't stop when warned. The driver was wounded, but so far there are no details about his injuries.

"We're definitely seeing an increase in Taliban attacks against Canadians, as well as NATO forces overall," Chao said.

He also noted that the Taliban generally changes tactics in the winter. He said insurgents are less inclined to engage in direct battles as temperatures dip.

"Therefore we see small attacks, the use of roadside bombs and the use of suicide bombers like we saw in this attack," he said.