MANILA -- Government troops killed more than 90 Muslim guerrillas and recovered dozens of bombs from captured rebel camps in a 12-day offensive in the southern Philippines, the military said Monday.

The rebels denied that any guerrillas were killed.

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Deadly clashes have erupted sporadically between government troops and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the past 10 months.

Peace talks to expand a Muslim autonomous region collapsed last August when Christian communities, who feared they would lose land and power, asked the Supreme Court to block the deal.

The military said the offensives have been directed at three rebel commanders who went on a deadly rampage in Christian communities after the self-rule deal in Mindanao region was abandoned.

Army Colonel Medardo Geslani said government forces had killed 93 rebels and recovered 45 bombs from several captured encampments in about a dozen offensives since June 4.

The military operations targeted guerrillas led by Ameril Umbra Kato, who remains at large, Geslani told reporters.

"We are in the process of methodically destroying" Kato's forces, he said.

Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Romeo Brawner said the offensives focused on the marshy municipality of Guindulongan and Talayan in Maguindanao, an impoverished Muslim province in central Mindanao where rebels have been fighting for self-rule since the 1970s.

Rebel spokesman Eid Kabalu disputed the military's claims, saying not one guerrilla had been killed in the Maguindanao clashes this month but that nine were wounded. He said the military could be padding its combat reports to cover up its failure to capture the three commanders.

Kabalu urged international human rights groups to investigate the military offensives, alleging thousands of villagers had been displaced and that troops had killed civilians whom they suspected of supporting the rebels.

Leila de Lima, chairwoman of the Philippine Commission on Human Rights, said her office would look into the allegations. (AP)