WASHINGTON, D.C.: An American warship has sailed through waters off the contested Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, in the latest implicit challenge to Beijing’s sweeping territorial claims in the region, the Pentagon said Sunday.

“Guided-missile destroyer USS Decatur conducted a freedom of navigation operation,” an official told Agence France-Presse. “Decatur sailed within 12 nautical miles of Gaven and Johnson reefs in the Spratly Islands.”