RIYADH, Oct 12: Saudi security forces killed three suspected militants in a night-time shootout here on Tuesday near a housing compound for foreigners.

Security forces ringed a house in Al Nahda district of eastern Riyadh after detecting the presence of members of a "deviant group", the term used by authorities for Al Qaeda-linked militants, an interior ministry official said.

After evacuating seven women and a boy from the first floor, they "came under heavy machinegun fire, while grenades were hurled from the second floor," he said, in a statement carried by the state news agency SPA.

"Three suspects were killed, while seven security officers were injured," the official said. -AFP