KILLING KIDS
Courtesy of Google News, this Scotsman report emphasizes the smallest, and most numerous, victims of the blast in Saudi Arabia.
CHILDREN's toys lay among the shattered concrete that littered the road. Sofas, baths and beds hung precariously from half collapsed buildings, while charred palm trees and twisted car metal surrounded the deep crater that lay at the heart of the once-peaceful Saudi housing compound yesterday.
The number of people killed in Saturdayï¿s attack on the Muhaya residential compound in Riyadh was still uncertain last night. Saudi authorities said it was 17; diplomats said it could be between 20 and 30 with more than 100 injured, the majority of them children. Many of the adults from the compound were out having dinners and parties late into the night, relaxing after the day-long fast of Ramadan, when the bombers struck.
These kids were Arabs and Muslims:
Initially, Britons and Americans were thought to be among the casualties but last night, it appeared all the victims were Muslims from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Sudan and Egypt.
Gaby Kallas, 44, from the Lebanon, said he heard gunfire and three explosions when the ceiling of the compound cafeteria where he and his friends were meeting collapsed. "I rushed home about two blocks away and found my family OK," Mr Kallas said.
"Oh God, this is unbelievable, heartbreaking," cried another young Lebanese businessman who moved into the compound only four months ago. "I feel like I am lost. Everything is gone. I survived the Lebanese war for ten years and I never saw anything like this.
"I know a lot of beautiful people who left their homeland to build a future here.
"There was an amazing community spirit. We lived together and prayed together. It was unbelievable. This was the place we could come home at the end of the day and just forget where we were. Now, it's gone."
I wonder if Al-Jazeera had its usual gory pictures? Here's the network's online English-language report.
Dan Darling at Winds of Change has a great post on the bombing, with lots of background and links. (Via InstaPundit.)