Haitham Mohammed Al-Khayat, 26, better known in extremist circles as Abu Kandahar Al-Zarqawi, was an administrator of the online forum, Al-Hesbah, according to websites. The sites announced that he was killed by US forces Friday. He was among eight Jordanians killed or arrested in the militant hotbeds of Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen over recent weeks.

The killings and arrests highlight the active role Jordanian militants play in the Al-Qaeda terror network. The websites and the official said Al-Khayat was an associate of the Jordanian-born doctor who blew himself up in a CIA outpost in eastern Afghanistan a year ago, killing seven CIA employees and a Jordanian intelligence officer.

Humam Khalil Abu Mulal Al-Balawi, also known as Abu Dujana Al-Khurasani, was a triple agent, recruited by Jordanian intelligence to provide information to the CIA on Al-Qaeda's No. 2, Ayman Al-Zawahri. But he turned on his handlers.

Al-Khayat knew Al-Balawi from their hometown of Zarqa, the birthplace of slain Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, the counterterrorism official said.

The intelligence officer insisted that Jordanians only make up a "small portion" of those fighting against US and other Western troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen, with the bulk of them coming from Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Syria, Egypt and Pakistan. However, he did provide details about eight Jordanians either arrested or killed just in the past month for involvement in terror-related activities.

On Dec. 15, Jordanian engineer Maath Mohammed Kamal Alia, 45, was arrested in Yemen on suspicion of throwing a bomb at a US Embassy vehicle.

In Dec. 14, Jordanian-Palestinian militant Mahmoud Abu Reidah, 38, was killed by US forces in Afghanistan. An Al-Qaeda operative better known as Abu Rasmi, he was granted political asylum in Britain in 1998.

On Dec. 7, Jordanian computer engineer Mohammed Rateb Qteishat, 33, was killed by Iraqi forces in the northern city of Mosul. He was an Al-Qaeda operative fighting American forces in Iraq. In 2006, he was sentenced to death in absentia in Jordan for plotting attacks on Americans in Jordan and attempting to blow up hotels in Amman.

On Nov. 19, four Jordanians of Palestinian origin from Zarqa were killed while fighting American troops in Iraq.

The men were all in their 20s and 30s and with the exception of one, had served jail terms in Jordan for plotting anti-American terror attacks.