"Patrolling soldiers clashed with Abu Sayyaf militants under Imram Asgari and killed him," said army Col. Buenaventura Pascual, commander of the military's Task Force Zamboanga.
Asgari's death comes a week after a clash in a village during which soldiers killed one of his followers.
Pascual said Asgari was
suspected of behind the spate of kidnappings in Zamboanga Peninsula, on the island of Mindanao.
The report of Asgari's death also comes after another fatal clash between military forces and the Abu Sayyaf Islamic group in Sulu province on the weekend.
Soldiers killed 13 militants and two soldiers died in the fighting, which erupted after about 50 of the separatist group's militants attacked a military detachment in the province's town of Talipao, security officials said in a Philippine Star report.
Six soldiers were wounded after the rebel faction stormed the detachment.
Randolf Cabangbang, spokesman for Western Mindanao Command, said a number of rebels also were wounded.
Cabangbang said the rebels were led by Hatib Jakariya, whose group was described as "Awliyah," a radical organization linked to the Abu Sayyaf and rogue elements of the Moro National Liberation Front, the report said.
"This was not just an ordinary harassment, this was an attack on the soldiers who were providing security to our military engineers constructing classrooms," said Brig. Gen. Romeo Tanalgo, the Sulu Island commander.
The al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf, regarded as a terrorist organization by the United States and the Philippines, is active in the southern part of the Philippines and has been accused of masterminding some of the deadliest terrorist attacks in the country.
One of the worst assaults took place in February 2010. An Abu Sayyaf group killed at least 11 people, including a 1-year-old child, in what may have been a revenge attack at 4 a.m. in a small village near Maluso town on the southern Basilan Island. Between 11 and 17 people are said to have been wounded, including four children aged 1 to 11.
Police said around 70 rebels opened fire with automatic weapons on houses. They then set fire to several of the houses, a report in the Philippine Star newspaper stated. Many of the dead were burned to death.
While the military and police in the southern Philippines battle militants, they also must contend with powerful rival clans embedded in local politics.
This week Philippines Sen. Franklin Drilon heavily criticized the economic performance of the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao -- which includes Zamboanga City -- over the past 20 years. The ARMM is a failure because the region remains one of the poorest in the country.
Drilon also questioned where government money has been going. He pointed to many irregular transactions of the former officials of the region who are mostly members of the Ampatuan political clan.
The Philippines was shocked in November 2009 when news broke of the country's worst mass killing, allegedly carried out by members of the Ampatuan family.
Nearly 60 people were shot and knifed to death during an ambush. The people were on their way to register a candidate for a local election in Maguindanao province, southern Philippines, but they never reached their destination.
Several members of the clan are under arrest and their court cases continue.
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