Canadian troops in southern Afghanistan prepared Monday to join fellow NATO soldiers in Operation Baaz Tsuka, an offensive described as a soft approach to battling the Taliban.

As part of the mission's first phase, information pamphlets were dropped throughout the Panjwaii district warning Taliban forces to leave or face the consequences.

CTV's Murray Oliver, in Afghanistan, said NATO is battle two types of Taliban -- the hard-core Jihadists and locals who could be convinced not to fight. He said NATO hopes to push out the hard-core fighters while persuading the locals to give up their arms.

The locals "could be persuaded if they can see the interest for their community to put down their guns, pick up their tools and go back to living a normal life," said Oliver.

Brig.-Gen. Tim Grant, commander of Canadian troops in Afghanistan, said he hoped the mission would "achieve the aim of dislocating the Taliban and have the village elders take more responsibility for influence and security."

"Sometimes they (local fighters) are referred to as Tier-2," said Grant. "I've also heard them described as the Afghan equivalent of European soccer hooligans."

"There's not much else to do. They get paid pretty well by the Taliban. We're just trying to see if we can find an alternate lifestyle for them."

Grant said Canadian troops were eager to get involved in the mission.

"They're anxious to do something," he said. "The opportunity will probably present itself quickly here where they can be involved in operations."

In a speech to troops at Forward Operating Base Zettlemeyer, Battle Group commander Lt.-Col. Omer Lavoie told members of Charles Company that while Baaz Tsuka (Falcon Summit in the Afghan language) was not about exercising military force, NATO and Afghan National Army forces would do whatever's necessary to succeed.

"As we move into this next operation, again, we're hoping to do it less kinetic than we did in Medusa," said Lavoie, referring to last September's offensive in the Panjwaii area.

"We're going to go in as soft as possible but hard as necessary if they want to make it hard on us."

The offensive kicked off this weekend in Kandahar province with coalition troops seizing weapons caches containing mines and explosives, NATO said Monday in a statement.

During a clash Sunday in Sperwan Ghar district, coalition troops had to call in air strikes. Four insurgents were killed and three coalition troops were wounded over the weekend, said NATO.