US ships toured several areas of Taiwan on Tuesday, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arriving on the island, according to US military sources.

At a time when China vowed to launch "targeted military actions" in response to Pelosi's visit, the US Seventh Fleet announced in a tweet that the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, which has been cruising in the region since the beginning of July, is in the Philippine Sea, south of Taiwan.

The US Navy released pictures of the USS Ronald Reagan, maneuvering with the supply ship USS Carl Brashear, on Sunday . 

A US official, who asked not to be named, said the aircraft carrier and its airborne group were "carrying out a routine mission in the Western Pacific".Meanwhile, a Navy amphibious ship, the USS Tripoli, has roamed eastern Taiwan, according to the US Naval Institute (USNI), an independent organization close to the US Navy.

The US Naval Institute indicated that the USS Ronald Reagan and USS Tripoli are both carriers of the latest F-35 aircraft.

For its part, the US Department of Defense (Pentagon) confirmed that the presence of these two ships in the region is not linked to the visit of Pelosi, who is the highest-ranking US official to visit the island since the visit of her predecessor Newt Gingrich in 1997.

"It is clear that we are taking all necessary measures to ensure the safety of members of Congress wherever they choose to go, and whenever they want to travel," a State Department spokesman said Tuesday.

Source: AFP