RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) – Saudi security forces stormed a suspected al-Qaeda hideout in the country’s capital early Friday, killing six militants and arresting a seventh after an exchange of gunfire, an Interior Ministry official said in a statement.

One policeman was also killed in the clashes, it said. The statement, carried by the official Saudi news agency, said security forces chased seven members with “deviant thoughts” who “belong to the astray bunch” to a house in Riyadh’s al-Nakheel district.

The Saudi government often refers to al-Qaeda members as individuals with “deviant thoughts.”

The house was “a hideout for crime, corruption, and a base for the plots of aggression and outrage,” the statement said.

After a heavy exchange of gunfire with automatic weapons, six of the seven suspected militants were killed, and a seventh was injured and arrested, it said.

Saudi Arabia launched an anti-terrorism campaign in May 2003 after suicide bombers linked to al-Qaeda attacked three residential compounds in the capital, Riyadh.