A secret military intelligence committee report has determined that Israeli airman Ron Arad died of unknown illness in captivity in Lebanon in mid-1990s, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Sunday.
The committee was formed four years ago to determine the fate of Arad, a F-4 Phantom navigator captured on October 16, 1986 after his plane was shot down over Lebanon.
He was captured by AMAL movement and later turned over to Iran, Ahonoth said.
According to a book by Dr. Ronen Bergman detailing the committee’s work and various domestic and foreign intelligence reports gathered in the case, the committee determined that Arad was still alive nine years after he was captured, the report said.
It said Arad is believed to have died from an unknown illness after the Iranians returned him to Lebanon, where he was held at a Revolutionary Guards facility. Both Iran and Hizbullah have been unable to locate his gravesite, the report added.
The Israeli Intelligence community, according to the report, has gone to great lengths to try and recover any information regarding Arad. Israel and AMAL held fruitless Germen-brokered negotiation on the matter for a long period of time.
In 1988, Arad disappeared from the home of the AMAL officer guarding him. By the mid 1990s, after it was ascertained that Arad’s fate was in Iran’s hands, German mediation efforts focused on Tehran.
In 1995, the Iranian ambassador to Germany informed the German mediator that Tehran “was no longer involved. We don’t know who Ron Arad is or where he is. If you think he is in Lebanon or held by Hizbullah, see if Hassan Nasrallah can help you.”
Meanwhile, Military Intelligence continued analyzing the case material. They eventually concluded that Arad was held in Lebanon for several years before being transferred to Iran in 1990.
The committee, the report went on to say, concluded that Arad was taken to Iran because the Revolutionary Guards wanted, as part of an internal power struggle, to claim the “prestigious” abduction for themselves.
Tehran repeatedly denied having any information on Arad, but it is believed he was held by the unit in the strictest confidence and in complete isolation.
The committee also said that Arad died in early 1995, just about the time the Iranians informed Germany that they were no longer a part of the equation, the report added.
