U.S. likely to make another South China Sea patrol before year-end - Navy official

Subi reef, located in the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, is shown in this handout Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative satellite image taken August 8, 2012, and released to Reuters October 27, 2015. REUTERS/CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative/DigitalGlobe/Handout via Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy will likely carry out another patrol within 12 nautical miles of artificial islands in the South China Sea before the end of the year, a U.S. Navy official said on Friday.

The USS Lassen, a guided missile destroyer, last month sailed close to one of China's man-made islands in the Spratly Islands archipelago to underscore its rights under international law, drawing an angry rebuke from Beijing.