MANILA, Philippines?A member of the Abu Sayyaf kidnap gang involved in at least three high-profile kidnappings, including the 2000 Sipadan abduction of 19 foreigners, was arrested in Sulu last weekend, police authorities said Thursday.

Mujibar Alih Amon, 26, was arrested in a raid on his hideout in the village of Umbrul Qura, Barangay Buansa, Indanan.

Director General Jesus Verzosa, the Philippine National Police chief, said the arrest was made possible by vital information provided by a civilian informant who was given the P600,000 bounty Thursday.

Verzosa said Amon was the logistics officer of the ASG group in Sulu headed by Radullan Sahiron.

?He carries a reward of P600,000 because of his involvement not only in a string of kidnappings but also in bombing activities in the past,? said Verzosa.

Amon, who uses the aliases Bongbong, Khatab, Pappong and Appong, is also an active member of the ASG?s urban terrorist group, he said.

It was the third reported success for police authorities in a week against the Abu Sayyaf which has been blamed for the nation?s worst terrorist attacks.

Police officials said Amon?s arrest was announced only Thursday so as not to jeopardize follow-up operations.

The announcement came just four days after the military killed one of the Abu Sayyaf?s top leaders, Albader Parad, and five of his men on Jolo island on Sunday.

Verzosa said that at the time of his arrest, Amon had a standing arrest warrant for six counts of kidnapping and serious illegal detention with ransom.

According to police, Amon began his Abu Sayyaf career as a teenager when he joined the Abu Sayyaf in a cross-border kidnapping raid on the Malaysian resort island of Sipadan in 2000, in which they grabbed 19 European and two Filipino hostages.

The hostages were ransomed off for millions of dollars and subsequently freed one after the other after months in captivity.

Police officials earlier announced that another Abu Sayyaf suspect who operated the boat used for the Sipadan hostage raid had been arrested last week in Manila while he was on a mission to buy bullets for the group.

Amon was also allegedly involved in the kidnapping of American Jeffrey Schilling in August 2000, and the killing of two Army soldiers in Patikul, Sulu, in 2003. Schilling was later freed allegedly after an unspecified ransom payment.

Amon was also identified as the one who received the P500,000 ransom for the release of Marilyn Chu who was kidnapped and held hostage at the camp of Radullan Sahiron in Patikul, Sulu, in October 2001.

He was also allegedly involved in the kidnapping of six members of the Jehovah?s Witnesses and their Muslim guide in Patikul, Sulu, on Aug. 20, 2002. Two of the six kidnap victims were later beheaded by the ASG.

Amon is also said to be responsible for an explosion on Airport Road in Jolo, Sulu, on Dec. 3, 2003 in which two members of the military?s bomb squad were killed. With Agence France-Presse