Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced that three police officers died in fighting between security officers and armed Islamic State members in the village of Elmalik in Yalova province in north-west Turkey on Monday. Six militants were also killed.
“This morning in Yalova, three of our heroic police officers … were martyred in a treacherous attack carried out by ISIS terrorists,” Yerlikaya wrote on X.
“I extend my condolences and deepest sympathies to the families of our heroic martyrs, to our police force, and to our esteemed nation, and I pray that God grants mercy to our fallen heroes,” he added.
Seven more police officers and a night watchman were also injured during the clashes that lasted some six hours in Yalova, some 100 kilometres east of Istanbul.
The gunbattle erupted as police staged a large-scale operation in the wake of a warning on December 23 from the Turkish Gendarmerie, a military-status law enforcement force, that Islamic State was preparing for attacks during New Year celebrations.
Police went to a house being used by a suspected militant cell in Elmalik village on Monday morning as part of the operation targeting 108 addresses across 15 provinces.
In Elmalik, the police were attacked by militants using heavy weaponry. Demiroren News Agency reported that the fighting lasted more than six hours.
After special forces were deployed, the militants were killed. Five women and six children in the house, reportedly the families of the dead militants, were evacuated unharmed, the Interior Ministry announced.
Yalova Governorate announced that schools would be shut, electricity and gas supplies cut off and civilians and their vehicles barred from entering Elmalik village and the surrounding area.
The Turkish Radio and Television Supreme Council, the state agency that regulates TV and radio broadcasts as well as online platforms, imposed a ban on broadcasting about the attack.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that the operations will continue against the militants.
“We will continue our fight, resolutely, multidimensionally and without compromise, against bloodstained terrorists who are targeting the peace of our nation and the security of our state, both within our borders and beyond,” Erdogan said in a written statement.
