The Israeli Mossad kidnapped Iranian Quds Force general and former deputy defense minister Alireza Asgari from Istanbul in December 2006, interrogated him about the missing Israeli airman Ron Arad and later killed him despite finding he had no relevant information, according to the New York Times.
The operation continued despite the Shin Bet's assessment which concluded that the intelligence linking Iran to Arad's disappearance was flawed. In September 2021, Mossad agents kidnapped IRGC General Abdullah Sabri while he was jogging in Damascus, drugged him and secretly transferred him to Israel for interrogation on Arad.
According to the investigation, Israeli intelligence officials increasingly believe that Arad was never held by Iran and apparently died in Lebanon in 1988, a conclusion reached by Iranian and Hezbollah investigators years earlier. Israel continued to pursue the case until 2026, when commandos searched a Lebanese village for his remains.