Lebanon says retired senior officer with ties to capture of Ron Arad has vanished

Reports say Ahmad Shukr, brother of man involved in capturing downed Israeli navigator, was ‘lured from his hometown by two Swedes’ amid speculation he was nabbed by Israeli agents

Lebanese authorities are investigating the recent disappearance of a retired security officer whose brother was apparently involved in the 1986 capture of an Israeli Air Force navigator, a Lebanese judicial official told AFP on Tuesday, amid speculation that Israeli agents could have nabbed him.

Israeli Air Force officer Ron Arad’s plane went down over southern Lebanon in October 1986, during the country’s 1975-1990 civil war. He was believed to have initially been captured and held by the Shiite Amal movement.

He has long been presumed dead, but his remains were never returned.

The Lebanese judicial official said on condition of anonymity that authorities were looking into the disappearance a week ago of retired General Security officer Ahmad Shukr amid conflicting information about his fate.

Initial investigations indicated Shukr “was lured from his hometown of Nabi Sheet” to a location near the city of Zahle, where he disappeared.

A source close to the family said Shukr is the brother of Hassan Shukr, who “was a fighter in the group that participated in capturing Israeli pilot Ron Arad after his plane was downed on October 16” in 1986.

Hassan Shukr was killed in 1988 in a battle between Israeli forces and local fighters, including those from the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group, the source close to the family added, requesting anonymity.

The judicial official said information indicated Ahmad Shukr “was lured by two Swedes who arrived in Lebanon two days before his kidnapping, and that one left through Beirut airport the day Shukr disappeared.”

Investigators are looking into the possibility that he was killed by Israeli agents or transferred to Israel, the official said, adding that so far no trace has been found of him in Lebanon.

Israel has in the past detained several Lebanese figures in a bid to determine Arad’s fate.

Shukr is a relative of Hezbollah military chief Fuad Shukr, whom Israel assassinated last year, according to the UK-based Arabic newspaper Asharq al-Awsat.

According to the newspaper, Hassan Shukr was part of a cell led by then-Amal commander Mustafa Dirani that took part in shooting down Arad’s plane and abducting him. Arad was held for a while in a house belonging to the Shukr family in Nabi Chit, the newspaper said.

Dirani, who later broke with Amal and joined Hezbollah, is long thought to have been the last person to see Arad alive. He was abducted by Israeli elite commandos in 1994 and released a decade later in an exchange with Hezbollah.

Israel believes that after being held for a period by the Amal group, Arad was handed over to Tehran, and was moved from Lebanon to Iran and then back again.

Several signs of life were received in the first two years of his incarceration, including photos and letters, the last of which was sent on May 5, 1988.

He has been presumed dead since the mid-1990s, although intelligence reports have differed as to the circumstances, timing and location of his death.

In 2016, a report indicated that Arad was killed and buried in 1988 near Beirut. But a 2004 Israel Defense Forces commission determined Arad had died in the 1990s after being denied medical treatment.

In 2021, reports alleged that Mossad agents had kidnapped an Iranian general amid renewed efforts to find new information on Arad. It claimed that they had abducted the general from Syria to interrogate him before he was transferred to South Africa and released.

The efforts were said to have failed to produce any significant new information.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.