Turkish security forces killed three police officers and six alleged ISIL fighters during a raid on a house in northwestern Turkey’s Yalova province on 29 December 2025, according to the interior ministry. The operation, carried out in Elmalik village south of Istanbul, turned into a shootout after officers entered the property at around 2am local time, the ministry said.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said the six people killed were Turkish citizens. He also said eight police officers and one night watchman were wounded, while five women and six children were evacuated safely from the house. Special forces from Bursa province were brought in to support the operation and authorities restricted access to the area while nearby schools were closed.

The raid was part of a wider campaign against suspected ISIL cells across Turkey. Yerlikaya said security forces carried out 108 overnight raids in 13 provinces. On Thursday, authorities said they had detained 115 ISIL suspects in operations at 124 locations. Officials said intelligence suggested some operatives were planning attacks in Turkey during the holiday period, with non-Muslims identified as a particular concern.

The Yalova raid underlines how Turkish authorities are treating the threat as both domestic and urgent. Turkey has broadened counter-ISIL operations in recent years, especially after years of regional conflict and the group’s defeat in large parts of Iraq and Syria. Officials have said some operatives moved into Turkey in 2019 after the group lost territory across the border.

The ministry did not immediately provide further details about the identities of those killed or the exact timeline of the shooting. But the scale of the response, the number of wounded officers and the evacuation of civilians point to the difficulty of the raid and the level of concern over suspected militant networks operating inside the country.

The Yalova incident came as Turkish and regional security services continued to step up their pressure on ISIL-linked networks. The United States also conducted strikes against the group in central and northeastern Syria earlier in the month, part of an overlapping campaign against militants still active across the wider region.

For Turkey, the Yalova raid adds to a long record of anti-ISIL operations that have spanned more than a decade. Authorities said more than 19,000 people were arrested on suspicion of links to the group between 2013 and 2023, a figure that reflects both the persistence of the threat and the breadth of the state’s response.

The latest operation now appears likely to feed into a further round of intelligence-led raids, especially if officials conclude that the Yalova cell had wider support links elsewhere in the country.