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LIMA, Oct 10 (Reuters) - A clash between the Peruvian army and remnants of the Shining Path guerrilla group killed at least 18 people near the mountain town of Tayacaja in southern Peru, the military said on Friday.

In the deadliest battle with suspected rebels since President Alan Garcia took office in July 2006, four military vehicles returning to a base in Huancavelica province were attacked in the middle of the night, an army officer said.

"Among those who died were 12 soldiers and six civilians, one of whom was a child. There might be somebody missing too," Otto Guibovich, head of Peru's joint chiefs of staff, told Reuters.

About three dozen police, soldiers and anti-narcotics workers have been killed since Garcia began his term.

The clash occurred near the Apurimac and Ene valleys, which are important coca-growing regions. Peru is the world's second largest producer of coca, the raw ingredient in cocaine, after Colombia.

The Shining Path, which led a deadly insurrection for years that started in 1980, largely collapsed in the early 1990s after its leadership was captured.

But holdout members of the group are still active and the government says they have mostly abandoned their Maoist ideology in favor of running drugs.

A government critic and former interior minister blasted the army for getting caught off guard.

"This shows the military is inept and incompetent when it comes to dealing with terrorism," said Fernando Rospigliosi. (Reporting by Diego Ore and Marco Aquino; Writing by Terry Wade; Editing by Xavier Briand)

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