Police in China have killed 18 people during a raid on an alleged terrorist training camp in northwest China 's Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.
One policeman was killed and another wounded in the clash which happened on Friday in the mountains of Pamirs plateau in south Xinjiang.
Ba Yan, a spokeswoman for the Xinjiang Public Security Department, said police captured 17 others and were pursuing several more after destroying what she described as a terrorist camp.
China has waged a relentless campaign against what it calls the violent separatist activities of Uighur Muslims in the far-northwestern region, which borders Pakistan, Afghanistan and three former Soviet Central Asian republics.
The training camp was run by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, a group that the United Nations labelled a terrorist organization in 2002, according to Ba.
It is believed that more than 1,000 ETIM members have been trained by al-Qaeda, said the report.
The former head of the group, Hasan Mahsum, was killed by Pakistani troops on Oct. 2, 2003, in a joint anti-terror operation along the border with Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Pakistan and China held joint military exercises last month aimed at fighting terrorism.
