Kano, Nigeria ? Militant attacks killed four Canadian soldiers and wounded 10 Thursday while 21 Afghan civilians died from a suicide car bombing – the latest barrage of violence that has accompanied NATO’s new security mission in southern Afghanistan.

Suspected Taliban fighters firing rocket-propelled grenades from a school killed three soldiers and wounded six involved in a security operation with Afghan troops near the village of Pashmul, west of Kandahar city, a NATO statement said.

It said NATO and Afghan troops “inflicted severe casualties on the insurgents and disrupted their leadership in the Pashmul area,” but gave no details.

Hours earlier, two bombs hidden along a highway, also near Kandahar, killed one soldier and wounded four, said Maj. Scott Lundy, a spokesman for the Canadian military. The bombings occurred three hours apart.

Seven NATO soldiers have now been killed since the alliance took over command Sunday in southern Afghanistan from a U.S.-led coalition, beginning the toughest combat mission in NATO’s 57-year history.

The NATO force, which has 8,000 soldiers mainly from Canada, Britain, the United States and the Netherlands, had three British soldiers killed in neighboring Helmand province Monday.