KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — The Sudanese army said Tuesday that at least 60 rebels had been killed in clashes in the country’s south, while the main rebel group there accused the government of launching assaults to divert international attention away from a security vacuum in Darfur.

The army’s spokesman, Col. Sawarme Khalid, said Sudanese troops retook control of the strategic Mafo area in the Blue Nile state. He said Sudanese troops sustained “minor casualties.”