JEDDAH, 7 September 2006 — A civil defense technical committee is investigating the drowning of two of its officers during training in Al-Ahsa, Arabic press reports said.

Brig. Hamid ibn Saif Al-Jaeed, director of civil defense in the Eastern Province, identified the two drowned officers as Ahmad Muhammad Al-Subaiee, 26, and Muhammad Fahd Al-Fehaid, 23.

He said the state would pay the rights of the dead officers in full to the bereaved families in accordance with the law.

“We have also decided to name the civil defense sports program to be held in Al-Ahsa during Ramadan after the two officers to honor them,” he said.

According to Al-Watan newspaper, two officers died and two others injured during a training program inside a water tank. It said the condition of the injured officers has improved considerably.

The paper named the injured officers as Khaleel ibn Ibrahim Al-Ibrahim, 41, and Muhammad Hassan Al-Obaid, 38, who are recovering at King Fahd Hospital in Hufouf and Prince Saud ibn Jalawi Hospital in Mubriz respectively.

“We have noticed good progress in their health,” said the medical team treating the officers. The two were injured while trying to rescue the officers who drowned in the tank.

The civil defense committee probing the incident included officers from Riyadh, Dammam and Al-Ahsa. They questioned the injured officers as well as others who have taken part in the training. The panel also visited the accident site.

Khaled ibn Abdul Aziz Al-Barrak, undersecretary at Al-Ahsa governorate, visited the two officers at the hospitals to check on their health.

In a related development, about 500 public and private cars parked in an impounding yard of the traffic and police departments in Jizan were swept away by heavy trains.

An informed source said there is a plan to shift the yard from the current location, which is prone to flooding. He said the owners of cars damaged as a result of flooding would receive compensations.

Many affected citizens have complained that the authorities had not taken any measure to shift the vehicles from the flooded yard to a safer place. They urged authorities to take quick measures to shift the vehicle to avoid their destruction. “The yard should be shifted to a better place as quickly as possible,” they demanded.