'All the doors came in and I was lying on shattered glass'

THE charred wreckage of an overturned truck lay in the rubble that was once the front of a four-storey building. A US flag dangled from the roof and the smell of explosives lingered in the air.

Seventy Americans employed by the Vinnell Corporation, a company with a contract to train Saudi military and civilian officials, lived in the building.

By chance, 50 of the Americans were on a training exercise and away from the complex. The building was in one of three housing complexes in the Saudi capital hit by suicide car bombers on Monday night. Attackers shot their way into the compounds and then set off the explosives.