New York Times: The Mossad kidnapped and murdered the former Iranian deputy defense minister.
According to a report in the New York Times based on three former American officials, Mossad personnel kidnapped Revolutionary Guards General Alireza Asgari, who disappeared from a hotel in Istanbul in December 2006, and interrogated him for several weeks about the fate of Israeli Air Force pilot Ron Arad. The investigations did not help to find out what happened to him, and according to the newspaper's sources, Asgari was murdered. One of them claims that his body was thrown into the Mediterranean Sea. Israel previously denied involvement in the general's disappearance.
After Asgari's disappearance, the media believed that he defected to the West and agreed to cooperate with Intelligence. In 2014, American journalist Kai Byrd wrote in his book "The Good Spy" that the Central Intelligence Agency helped the general move to the United States, but the agency publicly denied it at the time.
Ron Arad parachuted over Lebanon in October 1986 and was captured by fighters of the Shia Email movement. His traces were lost in 1988, and the Israeli authorities suspected for years that the bronze was brought to Iran. Asghari, who served in Lebanon and maintained close ties with Hezbollah's leadership, might have known about his fate, according to the assumption of Israeli intelligence.
According to the New York Times, Israeli experts now believe that Arad probably perished in 1988 in the Lebanese village of Nabi S***. A similar conclusion was previously reached by Iran and Hezbollah in a closed report. Arad's remains have not yet been found.