A U.S. Navy official said on Friday that the USS Connecticut submarine had arrived in the U.S. island of Guam, where the Navy would conduct a comprehensive check of its damage as a result of its collision with a foreign object, last Saturday, in international waters in the Indian Ocean region.

According to reports, 11 sailors were injured in the accident, their injuries range from mild to moderate.

The U.S. Navy announced last Thursday that one of its submarines had collided with an unidentified object a week earlier while touring international waters in the area, which Beijing claims sovereignty over large parts of it.

In its announcement, the Navy noted that the USS Connecticut, a nuclear-powered Sea-Wolf submarine, was hit in an accident but is still usable for continued service.

China claims sovereignty over most of the resource-rich sea, which is a vital transition to international maritime trade, in which trillions of dollars of goods pass through each year, and established military outposts on islands and coral reefs in the area.

However, the Chinese requirements conflict with similar requirements of Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. The United States and its allies conduct regular tours of the international waters of this region to ensure freedom of sailing in it, which angers China.