Three Turkish police officers, six ISIS militants killed in clash amid national crackdown

YALOVA, Turkey – Three Turkish police officers and six ISIS militants were killed in a gunfight in north-west Turkey on Dec 29, the Interior Minister said.

This comes a week after more than 100 suspected ISIS members were detained for planning Christmas and New Year attacks.

Turkey’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said eight police officers and another security force member were wounded in a raid on a property in the town of Yalova, on the Sea of Marmara’s coast south of Istanbul.

More than 100 addresses were raided nationwide early on Dec 29.

Turkey has stepped up operations against suspected ISIS militants in 2025, as the group returns to prominence globally.

The US carried out a strike against the militants in north-west Nigeria last week, while two gunmen who attacked a Hanukkah event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach in December appeared to be inspired by ISIS, the Australian police have said.

On Dec 19, the US military launched large-scale strikes against dozens of ISIS targets in Syria in retaliation for an attack on American personnel.

Raid lasted hours

The police raided the house in Yalova on the suspicion that militants were hiding there overnight. Sporadic gunfire was heard during the operation, which lasted nearly eight hours, according to a Reuters photographer at the scene.

Last week, the Turkish police detained 115 suspected ISIS members they said were planning to carry out attacks on Christmas and New Year celebrations in the country.

Mr Yerlikaya told reporters that the militants killed in Dec 29’s attack were all Turkish citizens, adding that five women and six children were brought out of the property alive.

Over the last month, the police arrested a total of 138 ISIS suspects. They carried out simultaneous operations on the morning of Dec 29 at 108 different addresses in 15 provinces, Mr Yerlikaya added.

In a post on social media platform X, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered his condolences to the families of the police officers killed, and said Turkey’s fight with “the bloody-handed villains who threaten the peace of our people and security of our state” will continue “both within our borders and beyond them”.

Wave of ISIS attacks in 2015-2017

The police had sealed off the road approaching the house in the early hours and smoke was visible, rising from a nearby fire, while a police helicopter flew overhead.

The Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office said last week that ISIS militants were planning attacks against non-Muslims in particular.

Almost a decade ago, the jihadist group was blamed for a series of attacks on civilian targets in Turkey, including gun attacks on an Istanbul nightclub and the city’s main airport, killing dozens of people.

Turkey was a key transit point for foreign fighters, including those of ISIS, entering and leaving Syria during the war there.

The police have carried out regular operations against the group in subsequent years, and there have been few attacks since the wave of violence between 2015 and 2017. REUTERS