Bomb blast breaks windows at US consulate in northern Mexico border city, but no injuries

Bomb damages US consulate in Mexico; no injuries

MEXICO CITY — An attacker threw an explosive device over the wall around the U.S. consulate in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, breaking windows and startling employees inside but causing no injuries, the U.S. Embassy said Saturday.

The attack, which took place about 11:30 p.m. Friday, is under investigation, embassy spokesman Claude Young said.

Young said the consulate and the consular agency in the border town of Piedras Negras would be closed Monday pending a review of security measures.

Mexican federal prosecutors in the capital said they were reviewing evidence from the scene, including video feeds from security cameras at the consulate.

Nuevo Laredo, across the Rio Grande River from Laredo, Texas, and other cities have seen increased violence in recent weeks as powerful Mexican drug cartels battle over control of lucrative trafficking along the border.

U.S. State Department employees in the area had not been victimized until last month. That’s when gunmen separately chased down and killed an American woman who worked at the U.S. consulate in Ciudad Juarez along with her husband in their SUV and another man married to a Mexican consulate worker in a similar vehicle. All three had been at the same party.

In 2008, two men fired shots and threw a grenade — which didn’t explode — at the U.S. consulate in Monterrey. Nobody was hurt in that assault, but the gate was left pockmarked. Five days later gunmen again fired at that consulate.