Kandahar, April 12:

US-led warplanes and soldiers killed 24 Taliban who were hiding in caves in southern Afghanistan, while two Canadian troops died in a roadside bomb blast, officials said today.

Afghan and US-led coalition troops spotted a group of the Islamist rebels on a ridge near a cave in troubled Zabul province late yesterday and called in jets to bomb the location, the coalition said in a statement.

Several Taliban who survived the airstrike jumped on motorcycles to evade the advancing troops before taking refuge in another cave which was also destroyed by coalition aircraft.

“As a result of the fighting, 24 enemy fighters were killed, 14 motorcycles and two cave sites were destroyed,” it said.

Separately, two Canadian soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb near their vehicle yesterday, as the bodies of six of their comrades who died days earlier in a similar attack were returning home for burial. The blast about 38 km west of Kandahar also wounded two soldiers.