Banda Aceh – Indonesia's military has reduced separatist rebel strength in Aceh by 60 percent, the province's martial law commander said Monday as the army claimed the deaths of 22 suspected rebels.

"What's clear, it's estimated that their strength has been greatly reduced... to around 40 percent," Major General Endang Suwarya said told a Jakarta radio station.

Suwarya, earlier said the military had rescued 124 people held hostage by Free Aceh Movement (GAM) guerrillas since last May's start of a major military offensive to crush the rebels, but 260 civilians were still detained.

Rebel operations commander in East Aceh, Ishak Daud, rejected there had been a severe drop in GAM's numbers. "In war there are retreats, and there are advances," he told AFP in Jakarta.

Suwarya has previously made claims to have decimated GAM's ranks. Two months after the start of the campaign, he was quoted saying the movements "armed remnants" had been reduced from 5,200 to 1,300, with thousands killed or caught.

He admitted Monday that earlier data may have been incomplete because government troops could not enter certain rebel-held areas. In an interview published Monday in the Republika daily newspaper, Suwarya said Indonesia's army was striving to free civilians still held by the rebels.

"Security forces are still trying to rescue 260 civilians who are still being held hostage by GAM in various locations in Aceh, including RCTI cameraman Ferry Santoro," he reportedly said.

Santoro and his journalist colleague Ersa Siregar was captured by GAM last June along with the wives of two soldiers.

Siregar was killed in a shoot-out involving troops and rebels in December. The soldiers' wives were rescued in January.

GAM has been fighting since 1976 for independence for the resource-rich province on the northern tip of Sumatra island.

The US State Department, in a report released last month, said "unlawful killings, beatings, and torture by soldiers, police, and rebels were common" in Aceh last year.

"In many cases, the victims were not combatants but civilians," it said.

In the latest violence, 22 rebels, including a district leader, died during a separate firefights in Aceh on Sunday, military spokesman Captain Chandra Purnama said.