Two people were left with minor injuries after a U.S. warship and a Navy supply vessel collided while refueling in the ocean near South America.
The Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Truxtun and the Supply-class fast combat support ship USNS Supply collided during a ship-to-ship replenishment at sea Wednesday afternoon, according to a statement from the Southern Command.
Two personnel reported minor injuries and are in stable condition. Both ships said they can continue sailing safely, Southern Command spokesperson Col. Emmanuel Ortiz told the Wall Street Journal.
The cause of the collision was not immediately clear, and Ortiz said the incident is being investigated.
The exact location of the crash was also not immediately available, but the Journal reported it was in the waters near South America.
The Truxtun left its home port of Norfolk, Virginia, on February 6 for a scheduled deployment. Meanwhile, the Supply had been operating in the Caribbean. A military official said the collision was in the Southern Command area of responsibility, which includes Central and South America and the Caribbean, according to the report.
The collision comes in the months after President Donald Trump ordered a major naval buildup in the region and began ordering strikes on multiple boats the U.S. claims are smuggling in narcotics for drug cartels.
At least 130 people have been killed in the U.S. military strikes since they began in September.
On Monday, the U.S. carried out a strike on a vessel in the eastern Pacific, killing two people and leaving one survivor. The military claimed the vessel was “engaged in narco-trafficking operations.”
The attack was the third known incursion since the raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro last month.
Collisions involving Navy warships are relatively rare, according to the report. Seventeen sailors died in two separate collisions between Navy destroyers and merchant ships in the Pacific in 2017. Officials determined both crashes were caused by crew failures.
