[Dawn] Eighteen militants, six of them would-be suicide bombers, were killed as helicopter gunships destroyed a training camp and troops continued operations in various parts of the Swat Valley, officials said on Saturday. The camp's trainees, including teenagers, were responsible for at least three attacks in recent weeks, an army spokesman said.The air raid on the training facility, located on a small island in the Swat River opposite the town of Charbagh, was carried out on Friday night after local people tipped off security forces of its location, according to Lt-Col Akhtar Abbas, the army spokesman in Swat.
Intelligence reports linked the camp to attacks that killed a total of 10 troops and civilians this month, he said.
Two of the attacks took place last week near Mingora and another was earlier this month in a more remote area.
'We have been working to find their source and today we destroyed that source,' Col Abbas told AP.
The army had declared Charbagh, about 10km east of Mingora, clear of militants except for small pockets of resistance.
Col Abbas said another six militants were killed in two operations elsewhere in Swat.
In one operation, five Taliban were killed, including a close aid to a high-ranking Taliban fighter Shah Doraan.
He said military operations were weakening the Taliban, and that many had chosen to turn themselves in rather than fight.
'With every day passing, the noose is being tightened around them, and that's why more and more of them are opting to surrender,' Col Abbas said.
Separately, the army said it had arrested 11 suspected militants in search operations in the region.
Security forces have been winding down a nearly three-month offensive to dislodge the Taliban from the Swat Valley and surrounding areas, but sporadic clashes continue.
On Saturday, residents said they found bullet-riddled bodies of six people they identified as militants in Odigram, a village near Mingora. It was unclear who killed them.