Canada's top soldier was whisked away from an Afghan village Friday after a nearby Canadian convoy triggered a roadside bomb, which blew a wheel off the armoured vehicle.

Chief of Defence Staff Rick Hillier had been in southern Afghanistan to take part in a large Canadian mission in the area. Troops are fanning out north of the city of Kandahar, visiting villages and tribal elders to establish a Canadian presence in the region, a former Taliban stronghold.

Hillier had been meeting with a village elder when the Canadian supply convoy, travelling about 800 metres away, triggered a roadside bomb.

Chief of Defence Staff, Rick Hillier, Friday.

No one was injured in the blast, but the wheel of the armoured Bison was damaged.

Hillier was first taken by armoured convoy to a Canadian operating base in Gumbad, about 70 kilometres north of Kandahar city, and then flown by U.S. Black Hawk helicopter to the main base in Kandahar.

In an interview with CBC Newsworld, Hillier played down the incident, saying soldiers reacted as they had been trained to and carried on with their work.

"It was a day in the life of this mission," he said.

Troops fan out to villages

The Canadian mission, which involves several hundred soldiers, armoured vehicles, artillery and helicopters, is expected to last through March. It comes after a deadly week in the war-ravaged country that saw two Canadian soldiers killed and eleven injured in a road accident and two attacks.

Troops are pushing out from Kandahar in southern Afghanistan into areas where the Taliban has returned after being defeated by U.S.-led coalition forces in 2001, the CBC's Kas Roussy said from the Kandahar base.

They intend to pacify the area, a necessary first step to improve local governance and people's lives.

Part of the forces' work involves opening a road from Kandahar city to the north.

"It is a dangerous mission," Roussy said. She added that the area the Canadians are moving into "is still very insecure."

U.S. officers who know the area said there are dozens of militants operating in several bands. Six U.S. soldiers and 18 Afghans, including civilians, were killed on duty in the area in 2005.

Few details are available for security reasons, but Roussy described seeing vehicles and soldiers preparing to leave the base over the previous 24 hours.

There are 2,200 Canadians in southern Afghanistan, part of a multinational force led by Canadian Brig.-Gen. David Fraser.

A battle group from Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry took over front-line duties in Kandahar from a U.S. task force in late February.

Since then, two Canadians have been killed in an accident, and five have been hurt. Five more were wounded in a suicide attack, and a sixth received a severe axe wound to the head from a Taliban militant, who was shot dead by other Canadians.

That was believed to be the first engagement between Canadians and the Taliban.