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"USS Connecticut" (archive picture from May 2021)
Photo: LT.
MACK JAMIESON / AFP
When it collided with an unknown object in the Indo-Pacific, a nuclear submarine of the US armed forces was damaged.
As the US Navy announced on Thursday (local time), the accident of the "USS Connecticut" occurred on Saturday "in international waters in the Indo-Pacific region".
Nobody was life-threateningly injured on board, the incident and the exact extent of the damage are now being investigated.
The "USS Connecticut" is in a "safe and stable condition".
The incident has been kept secret so far in order not to endanger the mission, it said.
The Navy news website Usni News reported that around a dozen crew members had suffered "moderate to minor injuries."
The nuclear submarine had therefore been in the South China Sea.
It is unclear what exactly the submarine could have rammed.
Speculations range from a sunken ship to a container that may have gone overboard.
According to the Navy, the submarine's nuclear drive was not damaged.
It is still "fully operational".
According to Usni News, the "USS Connecticut" set course for the US base on the island of Guam in the western Pacific.
Military tensions are currently growing in the South China Sea.
China is expanding its supremacy - and most recently provoked with flight maneuvers near Taiwan.
About 150 Chinese military machines broke into Taiwan's air defense identification zone around the weekend.
Taiwan's government has again sharply criticized the provocations caused by the Chinese military machines near the democratic island republic.
"Taiwan must be vigilant while China goes too far," said Prime Minister Su Tseng-chang in Taipei this Tuesday.
Beijing speaks of "provocative steps"
The White House has also voiced sharp criticism.
The "provocative military activities" are "destabilizing, risk miscalculations and undermine peace and stability in the region," said spokeswoman Jen Psaki in Washington.
The US would continue to support Taiwan in maintaining adequate self-defense capabilities.
Psaki described the US commitment to Taiwan as "rock solid."
Beijing calls the flights a warning to Taiwan and the United States.
Foreign Office spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the US should stop supporting the independence forces in Taiwan.
The US government is delivering weapons to Taiwan, strengthening official relations with Taipei and sending warships across the strait.
These "provocative steps" would undermine peace and stability.
Beijing has taken "necessary countermeasures".
China's anger is also likely to have related to the naval maneuvers of Taipei's western allies in the South China Sea, in which US and UK associations are mainly involved.
jok / AFP
