Three Turkish police, six IS militants killed in Türkiye raid

Three Turkish police officers and six Islamic State (IS) militants were killed in a gunfight in northwest Türkiye on December 29, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said, a week after authorities detained more than 100 suspected IS members who were allegedly planning Christmas and New Year attacks.

Yerlikaya added that eight police officers and another security force member were wounded during a raid on a property in the town of Yalova, on the Sea of Marmara coast south of Istanbul, Caliber.Az reports, citing Western media.

The operation was part of a nationwide sweep, with more than 100 addresses raided early on December 29.

The police operation in Yalova lasted nearly eight hours, during which sporadic gunfire was reported, according to a Reuters photographer at the scene. Authorities had sealed off the road approaching the property, and smoke was visible rising from a nearby fire, with a police helicopter monitoring the area from above.

The Interior Minister said the militants killed in the gunfight were all Turkish citizens. Five women and six children were rescued from the property unharmed. Over the past month, police have arrested a total of 138 suspected IS members and conducted simultaneous raids at 108 addresses across 15 provinces.

President Tayyip Erdogan offered condolences to the families of the fallen officers in a post on X, reaffirming Türkiye’s determination to fight "the bloody-handed villains who threaten the peace of our people and the security of our state," both domestically and internationally.

Türkiye has intensified operations against suspected IS militants this year amid the group’s resurgence globally. Recent attacks linked to IS include an attempted assault on a Hanukkah event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach in Australia, while the U.S. carried out strikes against IS targets in northwest Nigeria and Syria. On December 19, the U.S. military launched large-scale attacks on dozens of IS positions in Syria in retaliation for an assault on American personnel.

Turkish authorities said the Yalova house was raided on suspicion that militants were hiding there overnight. The Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office previously reported that IS militants were planning attacks targeting non-Muslims in particular.

By Khagan Isayev