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U.S. shuts Lagos post for security
YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSLAGOS, Nigeria (CNN) -- The United States closed its Nigerian consulate in Lagos Friday for undisclosed security reasons, the U.S. State Department announced. Britain, Germany, Italy and India also closed their diplomatic posts along the same street following the U.S. decision. Nigerian police and bomb detection teams surrounded the consulate area, keeping all traffic away unless vehicles were first thoroughly checked for explosives, CNN Africa correspondent Jeff Koinange reported. Nigerian police also patrolled a nearby lagoon and closely checked the waterfront near the consulate, Koinange said. U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Claudia Anyaso told CNN the security matter was "of mutual concern to the United States government and Nigerian government" and that "the issue is being addressed with the help and close collaboration of the Nigerian police." Reuters quoted a diplomatic source as saying officials had received information from foreign Islamic militant channels that indicated foreign militants posted a specific threat to the Lagos consulate. "This is not a Nigerian source and there is not necessarily Nigerian participation, but we can't be sure of that," the source told Reuters. The country is the world's eighth largest oil exporter, and Osama bin Laden has called Nigeria a candidate for "liberation," Reuters reported. Nigeria's population of 140 million people are divided roughly evenly between Muslims and Christians and the country has a long history of religious bloodshed. However, diplomats and analysts say there has been no evidence of bin Laden's al Qaeda group in the country. One small home-grown Islamic sect known as the "Talibans" staged a series of attacks on government offices and police stations in the remote northeast at the end of 2003, calling for the imposition of an Islamic state, Reuters reported. CNN Africa correspondent Jeff Koinange contributed to this report 
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