WORLD BRIEFING / PAKISTAN

Helicopter gunships destroyed a training camp for suicide bombers in Pakistan’s northwestern Swat Valley, killing six Taliban fighters in an area the government had already declared clear of militants, an official said.

The camp’s trainees -- including teenagers -- were responsible for at least three attacks, an army spokesman said.

Pakistan’s army says it is restoring security in Swat and surrounding areas after a three-month offensive wrested the valley back from Taliban control, but suicide attacks and skirmishes continue.

The military said it had crushed a major source of militant retaliation with the air raid on the training facility.

Army helicopters strafed the camp after residents tipped off security forces to its location on a small island in the Swat River, said Lt. Col. Akhtar Abbas, the army spokesman in Swat.

The army had in July declared the area mostly cleared of militants.