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.
