MANILA, Philippines (AP) – A top Al Qaeda-linked militant, accused of the kidnapping of three Americans in 2001 and of masterminding one of Southeast Asia’s worst terror attacks three years later, has been killed, the Philippine military said Wednesday.

Jainal Antel Sali Jr., popularly known as Abu Sulaiman – a top leader of the Abu Sayyaf rebel group – died in a fierce gunbattle Tuesday with army special forces, military chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon said.

Sulaiman is the highest-ranking Abu Sayyaf commander killed by American-backed troops. Washington had offered up to $5 million for his capture.

One former American hostage, Gracia Burnham, said in a statement that Sulaiman now faces judgment by God.

“Based on the six months I had close contact with Sulaiman during our year of captivity, I would say he was the most dangerous of the Abu Sayyaf leaders because he was filled with hate,” she said.

She and her husband, Martin, were held hostage by Abu Sayyaf for more than a year before he was killed and she died in the rescue effort that freed her.

“Martin and Sulaiman had long talks about their beliefs and beliefs in general while we were in the jungle, so today my heart is filled with sadness for Sulaiman because his next step is to face almighty God to be judged,” she said.

Matthew Lussenhop, a spokesman for the American Embassy in Manila, congratulated the Philippine government, describing Sulaiman’s killing as “a major success.”

In a separate operation, the alleged leader of another Al Qaeda-linked terror group was arrested in the southern Philippines, said Chief Superintendent Jose Goltiao, police director of an autonomous Muslim region.

The suspect, Kule Mamagong, is accused of plotting an October bombing outside the municipal hall in the city of Makilala, which killed eight and left dozens wounded.

Goltiao said Mamagong was a local member of the Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah, blamed for the October 2002 bombings in Bali, Indonesia, which killed 202.

Sulaiman allegedly helped plot a February 2004 bombing that triggered a ferry fire, killing 116 people in Southeast Asia’s second-worst terror attack.

But he was best known in America, perhaps, as the alleged mastermind of the kidnapping of the Burnhams, another American and Filipino tourists from a resort on the southeastern island of Palawan in 2001. The third American, Guillermo Sobero, was beheaded.

The kidnappings prompted Philippine authorities to allow the deployment of American troops in the southern Mindanao region to train and arm Filipino soldiers working to wipe out the resilient Abu Sayyaf.

Buddy Recio, a Filipino who was briefly held hostage by Abu Sayyaf in 2001, said Sulaiman provided an ideological inspiration to rebel recruits.

“His death means the loss of one master planner for the Abu Sayyaf,” Mr. Recio said. “I remember we couldn’t have small talk with that guy. It’s always about business or their ideology.”

On Tuesday, army forces raided Sulaiman’s camp, sparking a three-hour gunbattle through dense forests, said regional army spokesman Maj. Eugene Batara. Other insurgents escaped but troops are chasing them, Mr. Batara said.

The clash occurred between the army’s 8th Special Forces Company and about 60 Abu Sayyaf gunmen, about 590 miles south of Manila, Esperon said.

Villagers on the mountainous southern island of Jolo, a rebel informant and one of the wives of the slain rebel identified his body, Esperon said.

Esperon displayed a picture of the slain militant, then stood up to put an “x” across Sulaiman’s face in an American poster of most-wanted terror suspects.

Sulaiman’s death could set off retaliatory attacks, Esperon said, but that the military was ready to thwart any such assaults.

“I believe the activities of the Abu Sayyaf will go down considerably,” Esperon said.

Sulaiman, a 41-year-old civil engineer, joined the Moro National Liberation Front in 1996, but broke with the Muslim separatist group after it signed a peace accord with the government.

After working for a few years in Saudi Arabia building highways and buildings, police intelligence reports said, he returned home and joined the Abu Sayyaf in the late 1990s.

Having once been a builder, Sulaiman was asked by The Associated Press last year in a telephone interview why he would want to destroy.

He said their attacks were retribution for atrocities committed against Muslims worldwide. “I know that being once a builder of things would make me more efficient in destroying them,” he said.