Shock still grips the family of retired Lebanese General Security captain Ahmed Shukr, who was abducted days ago, as Lebanese security and judicial assessments increasingly point to Israeli intelligence as being behind his disappearance, over suspected links to the 1986 vanishing of Israeli airman Ron Arad in southern Lebanon.
His brother, Abdul Salam Shukr, told Asharq Al-Awsat the story began when a Lebanese expatriate living in Kinshasa, identified as A.M., contacted Ahmed and asked to rent his apartment in the Choueifat area, south of Beirut.
The two agreed months ago, and the man paid $500 in rent.
The expatriate made repeated visits to Lebanon and met Shukr at his home during one of them. He later contacted the retired officer to say that a wealthy African investor named Salim Kassab, later found to be a fake name, was interested in purchasing a plot of land in the eastern city of Zahle and needed his assistance.
Abdul Salam said the expatriate inspected the land, then called two weeks after leaving Lebanon to say the investor had agreed to buy it and would visit the country. He asked Ahmed to meet him at the site at 4:30 p.m. on the day of the abduction.
He said the expatriate insisted on the timing because it suited the buyer, despite Ahmed’s objections that darkness would have fallen by then, and the land’s features would not be visible. The expatriate later apologized for not attending, claiming he had broken his foot, and said the investor would visit the site alone with Ahmed.
At the time of the meeting, Ahmed disappeared.
“We know nothing about him except what we have heard through security and judicial leaks,” Abdul Salam said. He added that the abductors had rented a house in Zahle and erased all traces from it after kidnapping Ahmed.
Surveillance cameras tracked the vehicle as it headed toward the town of Souireh in the western Bekaa, where the trail then vanished. Souireh was previously used as a smuggling route from southwestern Damascus into Lebanon.
Loyalty to the state
“My brother served 40 years in the military establishment. His loyalty was only to the state and its institutions. He never belonged to any party,” Abdul Salam said. “We are a family that does not engage in politics.”
Ahmed was lured last week in a carefully planned operation that began in his hometown of Nabi Sheet in the northern Bekaa, before he went missing at a point very close to the city of Zahle.
Family members and residents have been gathering at the home of Nabi Sheet’s mukhtar, Abbas Shukr, to voice their protest and condemnation of the abduction.
The family said Ahmed Shukr retired nine years ago after serving for four decades in the General Security, during which he held several posts, including the Masnaa border crossing with Syria and the Qaa crossing in northeastern Lebanon.
“My brother joined the military in 1979, which means he was an ‘officer of the state’ when Arad disappeared in 1986,” Abdul Salam told Asharq Awsat. “An officer of the state does not belong to parties.”
He rejected attempts to link the family by kinship to Fuad Shukr, a Hezbollah leader killed by Israel in July 2024 in Beirut’s southern suburbs, saying no one in the town even knew him.
“He left the town in the early 1980s and never returned. He was distant even from his relatives,” he said, adding that since retiring, his brother “never left the Bekaa. He stayed at home and played cards with friends at night.”
The family home remains in a state of disbelief, a scene that has persisted since his disappearance last week. The case only began to move officially after Vice President of the Supreme Islamic Shiite Council Sheikh Ali al Khatib contacted Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Interior Minister Ahmed al-Hajjar, according to Abdul Salam.
He said Aoun pledged to instruct security and judicial authorities to expand the investigation and uncover the circumstances surrounding the incident. Officials from the Amal Movement were also in constant contact with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who is head of the movement, to follow up on the case.
Mystery remains
“We demand that the judiciary and security agencies confirm or deny the leak about an alleged link to Ron Arad’s disappearance,” Abdul Salam said.
“That leak does not concern us. What matters is what the security agencies say, including General Security, where Ahmed served, and the Information Branch of the Internal Security Forces, which is leading the investigation.”
He said the key to the mystery lies with A.M., a native of the southern town of Qana who lives in Kinshasa and has been evading the family’s calls.
“The Lebanese state must ask Interpol to arrest him and bring him to Lebanon for questioning,” he urged, adding that the man no longer answers his phone and that all available information about him, including video clips, is now in the hands of security agencies.
Abdul Salam said the family believes the expatriate coordinated the plot with Israel’s Mossad, guiding them to this point and enabling an operation carried out with precision and professionalism.
He said Lebanese security agencies told the family the abductors left no fingerprints, neither at the Zahle property nor at the Choueifat apartment, and that no evidence has been found. The kidnappers’ vehicle also remains unidentified.
