RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Blood is everywhere inside the bombed-out Al Hamra Oasis Village housing compound on the edge of Saudi Arabia's desert capital.
It is sprayed in great arcs across walls, it sits in dried pools along hallways and it soaks beds clear through the mattress. Here and there among the crushed chairs and shattered glass, tiny crimson footprints can be seen where bloodied children ran to escape after the suicide bombing Monday that killed at least 13 residents and injured dozens of others here.
The bombing was one of three carefully coordinated attacks Monday night targeting Americans and other Westerners at the Al Hamra, Jadawel and Vinnell compounds. About 34 people were killed, including eight Americans, and 200 were injured. Seven of the American deaths occurred at the Vinnell complex, which houses the residences and offices of retired U.S. military personnel who train the Saudi National Guard.
Residents of Al Hamra, an exclusive 416-unit compound favored by Western professionals, were still reeling Friday from the attacks. As they stepped through badly damaged and destroyed homes, they wondered what to do next.
They swapped stories of heroism and death while exchanging rumors of impending attacks. Many are moving to hotels while they decide whether to leave Saudi Arabia. Some are relying on the kindness of neighbors who have taken them in.
Sheridan Fakhri, an Englishwoman who is sales manager at Al Hamra, now calls her home an "abattoir" because of the sheer volume of blood that runs from her 10-year-old son's bedroom down the hall and into the living room. The blood belongs to her husband, Hassan, a computer specialist from Iraq, who suffered facial wounds from splintering glass. His jugular vein was partly severed, his ear was almost entirely sliced off, and shards of glass were embedded in his neck. Their son escaped serious injury.
The Fakhris' badly mangled townhouse, with shattered windows and doors blown off their hinges, now bears the faint smell of a slaughterhouse.
Around the corner, a Canadian woman, who asked that she not be identified, watched as movers packed her golf clubs and whatever else could be salvaged. She was going to a hotel and would likely depart the kingdom when her husband was released from the hospital.
He had been looking out a window at the moment a truck bomb went off not far from their home. A metal and glass sliding door was blown on top of him.
