Boko Haram, which wants Islamic law more widely applied, has killed more than 250 people this year in bomb and gun attacks on cities across the north of Africa's most populous nation.
President Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian southerner, has been criticised for not getting to grips with the sect, whose attacks have become increasingly sophisticated and deadly.
Nigeria's population of over 160 million people is split roughly equally between a Muslim north and a Christian south.
Although the majority of the strikes are in the sect's home region in the far northeast, where Nigeria borders Chad, Cameroon and Niger, the group is increasingly striking in other northern cities.
Security experts and Jonathan have said Boko Haram has ties with jihadist groups outside Nigeria, including al Qaeda's north African wing. Problems of poverty, which is more severe in the north than the south, and government corruption feed the unrest.
"Yesterday (Sunday) we carried out an attack on military formations at Baga town on the shores of Lake Chad as well as on the JTF in the selected areas of Maiduguri where we killed 12 soldiers and many civilians," Abu Qaqa, Boko Haram spokesman, told reporters by phone in Maiduguri.
The joint task force (JTF) in charge of tackling the unrest in the northeast, where Boko Haram first emerged in 2003, dismissed the allegation and said it had achieved a victory.
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