(Adds more details from British defence ministry)

KABUL, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Two British soldiers and more than two dozen Islamist Taliban insurgents were killed in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, Britain's Ministry of Defence and the U.S. military said.

The two British soldiers were killed when an explosion hit their vehicle in the restive southern Helmand province, the ministry said in a statement. A third soldier and a civilian interpreter were wounded.

"The soldiers were taking part in a routine patrol 17km (10 miles) north of Lashkar Gah when one of their ... vehicles was caught in an explosion," the ministry said.

Both men, from the 2nd Battalion The Mercian Regiment, were pronounced dead at the scene.

The deaths raises to 76 the number of British soldiers and Defence Ministry civilians killed in Afghanistan since the Taliban were ousted from power in 2001.

More than 7,000 people have been killed during the past 19 months in Afghanistan, the bloodiest period since the resurgent Taliban's overthrow.

In a separate incident, Afghan police and U.S.-led coalition troops backed by air strikes killed more than two dozen Taliban fighters when their patrol was ambushed in the same province, the U.S. military said.

Afghan police and U.S.-led coalition soldiers on patrol near Anjir Shali village, about 17 km northwest of Sangin in Helmand province, were ambushed by Taliban insurgents, the U.S. military said in a statement.

"The insurgents attacked the patrol with small-arms, machinegun and rocket propelled grenade fire from several buildings within the village limits," it added.

"Coalition aircraft conducted strikes on the positively identified enemy positions."

The Taliban had no immediate comment and there was no independent account of how many people were killed.

A provincial official said separately that several civilians were killed in an operation by U.S.-led troops against suspected Taliban fighters in Ghazni province in the south.

The U.S. military confirmed the operation but said the victims were militants. It said some non-combatants were also wounded.

The U.S.-led military says coalition forces have killed hundreds of Taliban in a spree of confrontations in recent weeks. The Taliban admit some losses during that period, but say Afghan and foreign troops vastly exaggerate enemy death tolls. (Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi in Kabul, a Reuters reporter in Ghazni and Kate Kelland in London)

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