MANILA, Philippines -- A Muslim militant who allegedly gunned down a Roman Catholic priest in a raid on a school in the southern Philippines was killed Thursday in a clash with troops pursuing an Indonesian terror suspect, the military said.
Troops recovered the body of suspected Abu Sayyaf commander Wahab Upao after an hourlong clash in remote Tawi-Tawi province, said marine commandant Maj. Gen. Benjamin Dolorfino.
The U.S. government had offered a $160,000 reward for Upao's capture, armed forces spokesman Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro said.
Upao was wanted for kidnapping and mass abduction, including the 2001 kidnapping of three Americans and 17 other people from the Philippine resort island of Palawan.
He is also believed to have been part of a group that raided a Catholic school in Tawi-Tawi on Jan. 15 and fatally shot priest Reynaldo Roda and seized two hostages, Dolorfino said.
A military field report said the troops raided the suspected hide-out of Indonesian terror suspect Dulmatin in Tawi-Tawi on Thursday, but he escaped. A clash ensued, resulting in the killing of Upao, it said.
There were no casualties on the government side, Dolorfino said.
It was not clear whether the troops had sighted Dulmatin, implicated in the 2002 bombings that killed 202 people in Bali, Indonesia.
Dulmatin, a key operative of the Indonesian-based militant group Jemaah Islamiyah, is believed to be in hiding in the southern Philippines.
Dolorfino said he had no word about the two hostages _ a teacher and a fish vendor.
The Abu Sayyaf, linked to al-Qaida, has been blamed for bombings, kidnappings and beheadings.
U.S.-backed offensives against the group, arrests and surrenders have reduced its strength to about 300 armed men from more than 1,000 during its heyday in 2000, according to the military.