Police search villa in NW Turkey in Khashoggi probe

Turkish police are carrying out inspections at a villa in Turkey’s Yalova province in relation to the investigation into the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The police and and the gendarmerie took security measures around the two storey villa in Samanli village of Termal district, according to police sources.

The drone-backed search has been assisted by sniffer dogs, as well.

A search inside a well in the garden of one of the villas is also underway.

Two fire trucks and crime scene investigation teams have also reached the spot.

Yalova Governor Muammer Erol said that the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office will make a final statement about the search operation.

Turkish authorities have previously carried out inspections at Saudi Arabia's consulate and the consul general's residence in Istanbul as part of the investigation.

It was reported last month that investigators had widened their search to Yalova and a forest on the outskirts of Istanbul for the remains of the journalist.

Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and columnist for The Washington Post, went missing after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.

After initially saying he had left the consulate alive, weeks later the Saudi administration admitted he was killed there, blaming a rogue group of Saudi operatives.

The killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and a critic of the crown prince, has strained Saudi Arabia's ties with the West and battered Prince Mohammed's image abroad.