Philippines says Chinese coast guard assaulted its vessels with water cannons

10/12/2023 16:36

                The Chinese coast guard targeted Philippine vessels with water cannon blasts Sunday and rammed one of them, causing damage and endangering Filipino crew members off a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, just a day after similar hostilities at another contested shoal, Philippine officials said.
        
        The Philippines and its treaty ally, the United States, immediately condemned the latest confrontation near the Second Thomas Shoal, where two Philippine navy-operated supply boats and two Philippine coast guard escort ships sailed to deliver food and other supplies to Filipino forces in a long-marooned navy ship that serves as a territorial outpost.
        
        "We condemn, once again, China's latest unprovoked acts of coercion and dangerous maneuvers against a legitimate and routine Philippine rotation and resupply mission to Ayungin Shoal that has put the lives of our people at risk," a Philippine government task force that deals with the territorial disputes said in a statement, using the Filipino name for the shoal.