PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) –

Pakistani troops killed at least 18 (alleged Taliban fighters) including six would-be suicide bombers during an ongoing offensive against Taliban insurgents in northwest Pakistan, officials said Saturday.

Gunship helicopters were called in after intelligence and locals said a suicide attack mastermind was present in Charbagh town in the Swat valley, an area the army previously said had been emptied of (alleged Taliban fighters).

"At least six would-be suicide bombers were killed in the shelling by gunship helicopters, the same place was being used as launching pad for training the suicide attackers," an army statement late Friday said.

A military official in Mingora, the main town in Swat and 20 kilometres (12 miles) from where the air raid was carried out, confirmed the strikes in the Mangaltan area of the town and the death toll, adding several militants were also wounded.

Separately, the bullet-riddled bodies of six (alleged Taliban fighters) were Saturday found in a village in Swat valley eight kilometres from Mingora, police said.

"Six badly mutilated bodies were found from two different places at Odigram," Ghulam Farooq, a senior police official told AFP by telephone, adding that the bodies had bullet wounds. It was not clear who had killed them.

Earlier this month, 18 (alleged Taliban fighters) turned up dead in Swat under similar circumstances. A military official said that since July almost 200 bodies of militants and some civilians had been found in the region.

Meanwhile, the military said Saturday it continued search and clearance operations across Malakand district and Swat.

"Security forces carried out search operation at Thana area and killed five (alleged Taliban fighters) during exchange of fire," it said in a daily update on the operation.

Another (alleged Taliban fighter) was killed during the operation at a village called Dandial near Thakot it added.

Pakistan's military previously said it had cleared Swat of (alleged Taliban fighters) in an offensive launched earlier this year after (alleged Taliban fighters) extended their grip into the valley.

Pakistan says more than 1,971 (alleged Taliban fighters) and over 172 security personnel have been killed in the offensive since late April, but the death tolls are impossible to verify independently.