BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) -- A Marxist rebel leader known for his
                  role in high-profile kidnappings, including the abduction of four U.S. citizens
                  last year, died Friday in a clash with army troops just outside Bogota,
                  authorities said.

                  The rebel chieftain known by his nom de guerre "Miller Perdomo" was the
                  top regional commander of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
                  (FARC) rebels operating in and around the capital, police and military
                  spokesmen said.

                  They said he was gunned down along with three other rebels early Friday
                  morning in a firefight in San Juan de Sumapaz, a rural area southeast of
                  Bogota.

                  Miller Perdomo, whose real name was Vladimir Gonzalez Obregon, was the
                  second high-ranking FARC rebel to be killed by security forces this week.

                  Miguel Pascuas, who helped found the guerrilla army together with its
                  supreme commander Manuel "Sureshot" Marulanda in the mid-1960s, died
                  Thursday in a police raid on a luxury penthouse apartment in the southwest
                  city of Cali.

                  Miller Perdomo gained notoriety in March last year when the FARC's 51st
                  Front, which he subsequently took command of, kidnapped more than 40
                  people at a makeshift roadblock on a heavily-traveled highway linking
                  Bogota to the oil-rich eastern plains.

                  Four U.S. bird-watchers were seized by the 51st Front at about the same
                  time. One of the Americans, Thomas Fiori of New York, managed to
                  escape his rebel captors. But the three others, New Yorker Peter Shen,
                  Todd Mark of Houston and Louise Augustine from Chillicothe, Illinois, were
                  held for more than a month before the FARC released them.

                  After initial denials, the FARC admitted its role this week in the killings of
                  three other Americans, who were kidnapped in northeast Colombia on Feb.
                  25.

                  The group said in a statement Wednesday that the murders of the U.S.
                  citizens, who were helping U'wa Indians defend their ancestral lands from
                  encroachment by a U.S. oil company, were ordered by a mid-level field
                  commander who acted without consulting his superiors.

                  But Colombia's defense minister and military brass have blamed the crime on
                  a regional FARC commander who is the brother of Jorge Briceno, alias
                  "Mono Jojoy," the group's No. 2 leader and chief military strategist.

                  The FARC, the hemisphere's largest and oldest guerrilla group, operates
                  more than 60 so-called "fronts" across Colombia. Each is comprised of
                  between 150 and 400 rebels, and the group has a long history of using
                  kidnap ransoms to finance its war against the state.