Canadian soldiers on Saturday were among coalition forces hunting down Taliban fighters who escaped after a day-long battle that followed an ambush outside Kandahar.

The Canadians were patrolling villages southwest of Kandahar. They were hunting for insurgents who may have been wounded during a coalition air strike deployed Friday after an Afghan police checkpoint was attacked.

Insurgents ambushed the checkpoint as an Afghan army commander passed through the area. Small arms fire was exchanged between the two sides until a Canadian Army rapid reaction force arrived on the scene.

American Apache attack helicopters were also sent to fight the insurgents, along with two British Harrier jetfighters and an unknown number of U.S. A-10 tank-buster aircraft. The American helicopters apparently fired rockets at the attackers, The Canadian Press reported.

Early reports from the incident suggested insurgents had managed to hit a Canadian light armoured vehicle with two rocket-propelled grenades in the conflict about 10 kilometres west of Kandahar City.

Army officials have now said insurgents fired three RPGs, but only one struck the vehicle, said CTV's Sarah Galashan, reporting from Kandahar.

She told CTV Newsnet the occupants of the LAV III returned fire, and believe they may have hit their attacker because no more shots were fired.

After the skirmish, another coalition airstrike was deployed to the village of Sansigar where Taliban fighters were believed to have retreated.

Assadullah Khalid, the governor of Kandahar, said 41 insurgents were killed and 11 were taken prisoner in Friday's fight.

Khalid also said six Afghan police officers were killed, nine were injured, and 13 civilians were wounded including a woman and a young girl.

"Certainly it was a tough day for them," Galashan said. "We have learned from Col. Ian Hope that the Afghan police force lost at least two of its leaders and high-ranking officials."

Traffic accident

In a separate incident Friday morning, three Canadian soldiers received only minor injuries in a traffic accident in Afghanistan.

The accident occurred in Sha Wali Kot district, 65 kilometres north of Kandahar.

The soldiers were airlifted to a medical facility. Two of the three soldiers were described as having suffered only "bumps and bruises," said Galashan.