A suicide bomber tried to drive this sports-utility vehicle into a patrol north of Kandahar City.

Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan's Shah Wali Kot district on Thursday shot and killed the suicide bomber who was planning a "spectacular attack," officials reported Friday.

The suicide bomber tried to drive a sports-utility vehicle into a bomb-sweeping patrol north of Kandahar City, said Maj. David Warnke, head of Canada's counter-improvised explosive devices (IED) unit.

Soldiers had set up a blockade and had several vehicles stopped while conducting the sweep, and a Toyota Land Cruiser pulled out of the line and sped toward them, Warnke said.

The driver was warned to stop with hand signals, a warning flare and warning shots before soldiers opened fire on the vehicle and killed the man, Warnke said

The soldiers then discovered the suicide bomber's vehicle contained about 600 kilograms of explosives, including three Russian aircraft bombs that weighed up to 250 kilograms, Warnke said.

"It didn't detonate because our soldiers applied their rules of engagement effectively," Warnke said.

The bomber didnt had the time to detonate the devices before he was killed. If he had, it could have meant that at least six soldiers, who were not in armoured vehicles at the time, could have been severely injured or killed, Warnke said.

The size of the explosives would likely have killed everyone within 260 metres of the vehicle, Warnke said, and could have injured people up to 1.5 kilometres away.

Warnke said it is believed that the bomber was targeting Canadian troops.

"It would've been a spectacular attack and it would've been effective," he said.

Warnke said the size of the three explosives found in the vehicle was not typical.

Taliban insurgents have stockpiled explosives left over from the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, Warnke said, but the three aircraft bombs were different than what's usually found.