Kandahar "offensive" begins, but it's not what you may think.

U.S. soldiers and Afghan police swarmed a dense Taliban stronghold of mud-brick homes on the western shoulder of Kandahar early Saturday, conducting searches and promising aid in a preview of a planned summer campaign to control the insurgent movement's spiritual home.

Operation Kokaran was named for the neighborhood where the Taliban have assassinated government officials and built infiltration routes. The U.S. goal here is to clear out insurgents, build up local governance and bring in reconstruction projects.

Only a few shots were fired Saturday during the most comprehensive military-civilian operation in Kandahar since President Obama ordered 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan in December. It was the first time civilian aid and reconstruction teams have taken part in conceiving and planning a military clearing operation here, according to U.S. officials.

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No American soldiers entered homes. Afghan female police officers, their faces covered by scarves, searched compounds. Male police questioned residents, confiscating guns from several men who failed to produce permits.

A development team invited local elders to a shura, or meeting, on Monday to discuss aid projects and security. They will be asked about community needs "so that we don't dictate to them what they get," said a Canadian civil affairs officer.

Insurgents have attacked Nato's main military base in southern Afghanistan. A Nato spokesman told the BBC Kandahar airfield had come under rocket and mortar fire. Several Nato personnel were wounded. A ground assault was also reported to be under way.

It is the second such attack on a major Nato site in the last few days - on Wednesday Taliban militants attacked the main US military base at Bagram. An American contractor was killed in fighting that lasted several hours.

Nato also said that attacks in southern Afghanistan earlier on Saturday killed three Nato personnel and a civilian working with the military. On Tuesday, a Taliban suicide bomber attacked a Nato convoy in the capital Kabul, killing 18 people including six Nato soldiers. The attacks came soon after the Taliban announced a spring offensive against Nato forces and Afghan government troops.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/south_asia/10135441.stm