Lebanese security services suspect that Israel’s Mossad abducted a former senior Lebanese military officer with alleged ties to the disappearance of Israeli air force navigator Ron Arad, according to reports Tuesday in Saudi media.
The Saudi network Al Arabiya reported, citing a Lebanese source, that Lebanese authorities believe Mossad abducted Ahmad Shukr, a former Lebanese officer, in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon. According to the source, Lebanon suspects the alleged abduction is linked to the 1986 capture of Ron Arad, whose aircraft crashed over Lebanon during a mission and who has been missing ever since.
According to the report, Shukr was allegedly lured from his hometown of Nabi Sheet in northeastern Lebanon to the city of Zahle, where he was abducted. The report also claimed that Lebanon suspects a group entered Beirut’s international airport two days before the incident.
Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat also published a report stating that “investigations indicate Israel abducted a Lebanese officer connected to the Ron Arad affair.” According to that report, Shukr was lured from the Bekaa Valley in an intelligence operation involving two Swedish citizens, one of them of Lebanese origin.
A legal source overseeing the initial investigation told the Saudi newspaper that Shukr disappeared about a week ago. The report added that Shukr is a relative of Fuad Shukr, Hezbollah’s chief of staff, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s Dahiyeh district last year.
The same source said Lebanon’s investigative branch reviewed surveillance camera footage, analyzed communications data and uncovered preliminary indications suggesting Shukr “was the victim of a carefully planned operation that began in his hometown of Nabi Sheet, in the northern Bekaa region,” Asharq Al-Awsat reported. “He disappeared very close to the city of Zahle, where efforts are now focused on determining his fate.”
The report said there are conflicting accounts regarding the circumstances and motives behind Shukr’s disappearance, but the suspicion that Israel was behind the abduction has gained momentum based on information emerging from the investigation. It added that the involvement of non-Lebanese individuals has strengthened the assessment that the case has a security and intelligence dimension.
According to the source, preliminary findings from investigations, surveillance and checks indicate that the abduction was carried out by two Swedish citizens, one of Lebanese origin, who entered Lebanon via Beirut airport just two days before Shukr disappeared. One of the two left Lebanon through the airport on the same day Shukr vanished, raising serious questions about his role in the operation.
As for the second individual, of Lebanese origin, the source suggested he participated in the abduction and remained in Lebanon, as airport and land and sea border records indicate he did not leave the country, unless he departed illegally.
The source did not rule out the possibility that “other individuals inside Lebanon were involved in monitoring Ahmad Shukr and creating the conditions for his capture and abduction.”
Asharq Al-Awsat also reported on several possible scenarios regarding Shukr’s fate, ranging from the possibility that he was killed to the assessment that he was transferred out of Lebanon.
“There is still no physical or technical evidence indicating Shukr’s presence inside Lebanese territory,” the source said, adding that this strengthens the hypothesis that he was drugged and abducted to Israel, either by air in a complex operation or by sea aboard a vessel that departed from the Lebanese coast.
The source drew a comparison to the abduction of Imad Amhaz, a Lebanese navy officer and senior Hezbollah terrorist, who was captured in a special operation carried out by Israel’s Shayetet 13 naval commando unit deep inside Lebanon last year.