Suspected Iranian spy ship returns to port amid concerns of potential Israeli strike – report

A suspected Iranian spy ship is en route to Iran as the country braces for a potential strike by Israel, Bloomberg reports.

The outlet says the Behshad set sail from its position near the coast of Yemen on April 4 then stopped broadcasting its location until April 18, when it reappeared near the Strait of Hormuz.

Bloomberg says the ship’s signals indicate it will reach Iran’s Bandar Abbas port later today.

The Behshad is registered as commercial cargo ships with a Tehran-based company the US Treasury has sanctioned as a front for the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines.

The vessel has been in the Red Sea since 2021.

It arrived there after Iran removed the Saviz, another suspected spy base in the Red Sea that suffered damage in an attack that analysts attributed to Israel amid a wider shadow war of ship attacks in the region.

Iran previously described the Saviz as aiding in “anti-piracy” efforts in the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

In March, Tehran warned the US against targeting either ship.

Iran launched more than 300 missiles, drones, and rockets at Israel over the weekend, saying it was retaliation for an allegedly Israeli strike on April 1 on a site in Damascus that Iran said was a consular building, which killed two Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps generals and several other officers.

Nearly all of the Iranian projectiles fired at Israel were intercepted, but a girl was seriously injured.