On 3 December 1998 a Yugoslav border patrol was attacked by a group of nine Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) attempting to illegally cross the border between Albania and Yugoslavia. Eight militants were killed in the ensuing exchange, while the border patrol suffered no casualties. This was the most serious armed incident in Kosovo since a truce between the KLA and the Yugoslav security forces had taken effect that October.
In 1989, Belgrade abolished self-rule in Serbia's two autonomous provinces, Vojvodina and Kosovo.[1] Kosovo, a province inhabited predominantly by ethnic Albanians, was of great historical and cultural significance to Serbs,[2] who had formed a majority there before the mid-19th century, but by 1990 represented only about 10 percent of the population.[3] Alarmed by their dwindling numbers, the province's Serbs began to fear that they were being "squeezed out" by the Albanians, and ethnic tensions worsened.[4] As soon as Kosovo's autonomy was abolished, a minority government run by Serbs and Montenegrins was appointed by Serbian President Slobodan Milošević to oversee the province, enforced by thousands of heavily armed paramilitaries from Serbia-proper. Albanian-language newspapers, television and radio stations were shut down, as were Albanian-language schools and colleges. All of the Albanian professors at the University of Pristina lost their jobs, as did hundreds of thousands of other Albanians working in state-owned companies.[1]
In 1996, a ragtag group of Albanian nationalists calling themselves the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) began attacking the Yugoslav Army (Serbo-Croatian Latin: Vojska Jugoslavije; VJ) and the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs (Serbo-Croatian Latin: Ministarstvo unutrašnjih poslova; MUP) in Kosovo, with the goal of separating the province from the rest of Yugoslavia, which by then was just a rump federation consisting of Serbia and Montenegro. At first, the KLA carried out hit-and-run attacks—31 in 1996, 55 in 1997, and 66 in January and February 1998 alone.[5] It quickly gained popularity among young Kosovo Albanians, many of whom rejected the non-violent resistance to Yugoslav authorities advocated by the politician Ibrahim Rugova and favoured a more aggressive approach.[6] The organization received a significant boost in 1997, when an armed uprising in neighbouring Albania led to thousands of weapons from the Albanian Army's depots being looted. Many of these weapons ended up in the hands of the KLA, which already had substantial resources due its involvement in the trafficking of drugs, weapons and people, as well as through donations from the Albanian diaspora.[7] The group's popularity skyrocketed after the VJ and MUP attacked the compound of KLA leader Adem Jashari in March 1998, killing him, his closest associates and most of his family. The attack motivated thousands of young Kosovo Albanians to join the ranks of the KLA, fueling the Kosovar uprising that eventually erupted in the spring of 1998.[8]
The Kosovo conflict escalated over the summer of 1998. In October, Milošević and U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke reached an agreement to temporarily end the fighting. The agreement came after Holbrooke convinced the KLA to consider negotiations with Belgrade while making it clear to Milošević that failing to find a peaceful solution to the conflict would lead to a NATO bombing campaign against Serbia.[9] By December, over 1,000 people had been killed and more than 300,000 displaced.[10]
Clash
According to Yugoslav officials, nine Albanian militants[11] who were illegally attempting to enter Yugoslavia[12] opened fire on a group of border guards early in the morning of 3 December.[11] Eight of the militants were killed in the ensuing shootout.[11][12] The border guards did not suffer any casualties.[11] Albanian sources identified the fallen KLA militants as Skënder Hameli (from Prizren), Muhamet Malësori, Hysni Duraku, and Isak, Ismet, Sedat, Hyda and Sinan Hoti (all from Orahovac). Their bodies were recovered by Yugoslav authorities, and later taken to a Prizren morgue so that autopsies could be performed. With the post-mortems complete, the militants' bodies were handed over to their families, and were buried the following day in their native villages.[13]
This was the most serious armed incident between the forces of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević and the KLA since a truce had been negotiated a month and a half earlier.[11] Less than two weeks later, another altercation took place near the site of the clash, this time a Yugoslav Army ambush in which more than 30 KLA militants were killed.[14]
The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that lasted from 28 February 1998 until 11 June 1999. It was fought between the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which controlled Kosovo before the war, and the Kosovo Albanian rebel group known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). The conflict ended when the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) intervened by beginning air strikes in March 1999 which resulted in Yugoslav forces withdrawing from Kosovo.
Serbia and Montenegro, known until 2003 as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, FR Yugoslavia or simply Yugoslavia, was a country in Southeast Europe located in the Balkans that existed from 1992 to 2006, following the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The country bordered Hungary to the north, Romania to the northeast, Bulgaria to the southeast, North Macedonia to the south, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to the west, and Albania to the southwest. The state was founded on 27 April 1992 as a federation comprising the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Montenegro. In February 2003, it was transformed from a federal republic to a political union until Montenegro seceded from the union in June 2006, leading to the full independence of both Serbia and Montenegro.
The Kosovo Liberation Army was an ethnic Albanian separatist militia that sought the separation of Kosovo, the vast majority of which is inhabited by Albanians, from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) and Serbia during the 1990s. Albanian nationalism was a central tenet of the KLA and many in its ranks supported the creation of a Greater Albania, which would encompass all Albanians in the Balkans, stressing Albanian culture, ethnicity and nation.
Operation Horseshoe was a 1999 alleged plan to ethnically cleanse Albanians in Kosovo. The plan was to be carried out by Serbian police and the Yugoslav army.
The history of Kosovo dates back to pre-historic times when the Starčevo culture, Vinča culture, Bubanj-Hum culture, and Baden culture were active in the region. Since then, many archaeological sites have been discovered due to the abundance of natural resources which gave way to the development of life.
Adem Jashari was one of the founders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), a Kosovo Albanian separatist militia which fought for the secession of Kosovo from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the 1990s.
Ismet Jashari also known as Commander Kumanova, was an Albanian commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) who was killed on 25 August 1998 during the fighting with Serbian forces in Klečke, Kosovo. The Ismet Jashari-Kumanova Brigade of the KLA was named in his memory. After the Kosovo War, he was declared Hero of Kosovo.
The Battle of Belaćevac Mine was a week-long clash between the Yugoslav Army (VJ), Serbian police (MUP) and the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in June 1998, during the Kosovo War. It was fought over the Belaćevac coal mine, which powered two generating stations that supplied electricity to most of Kosovo.
The Battle of Junik was a battle fought during the Kosovo War between the ethnic Albanian paramilitary organization known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and the security forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia over the town of Junik in western Kosovo.
The Battle of Glođane was fought during the Kosovo War in the village of Glođane first on March 24, 1998, and again later on August 11, 1998. It involved the Kosovo Albanian militant group known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and the Yugoslav military and Serbian police forces. The clashes represented a series of military offensives launched by the Yugoslav army and Serbian police to address a growing KLA presence within Kosovo Albanian villages.
The Panda Bar massacre alternatively known as the Panda Café attack was an attack on Serbian civilians in the city of Peć in north-western Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija, now Kosovo, on the night of 14–15 December 1998. Two masked men opened fire into a coffee bar, killing six Serb youths, and wounding 15 others.
The war crimes trial of Slobodan Milošević, the former President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) lasted for just over four years from 2002 until his death in 2006. Milošević faced 66 counts of crimes against humanity, genocide, and war crimes committed during the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. He pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
The Insurgency in Kosovo began in 1995, following the Dayton Agreement that ended the Bosnian War. In 1996, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) began attacking Serbian governmental buildings and police stations. This insurgency would lead to the more intense Kosovo War in February of 1998.
On December 14, 1998, the Yugoslav Army (VJ) ambushed a group of 140 Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) militants attempting to smuggle weapons and supplies from their base in Albania into the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. A five-hour battle ensued, ending with the deaths of 36 militants and the capture of a further nine. Dozens more fled back to Albania, abandoning large quantities of weapons and supplies, which the Yugoslav authorities subsequently seized. The ambush was the most serious war-related incident in Kosovo since a U.S.-negotiated truce took effect two months before. It came on the heels of increasing tensions in the province, where inter-ethnic violence had been escalating steadily since early 1995.
On the morning of April 23, 1998, a band of Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) fighters was ambushed by a much smaller group of Yugoslav Army (VJ) border guards near the Košare outpost, just west of Dečani. The fighters had been trying to smuggle weapons and supplies into Kosovo via northern Albania. Nineteen were killed in the ensuing attack, and a further two were captured. The VJ did not sustain any casualties. Some of the militants retreated back to Albania, while others managed to break through the ambush and make it past the Yugoslav border, into Kosovo. Following the clash, the VJ confiscated a large quantity of arms that the militants had been transporting.
On July 18, 1998 a Yugoslav Army (VJ) border patrol ambushed a column of Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) insurgents and foreign mujahideen just west of Dečani, on the frontier between Albania and Yugoslavia. The ambush resulted in the deaths of four KLA fighters and 18 mujahideen, most of whom were citizens of Saudi Arabia. Twelve militants were wounded, and a further six were arrested by the Yugoslav authorities and charged with illegal entry and gunrunning. The VJ reported seizing a significant amount of arms and ammunition that the militants had been smuggling. One Yugoslav border guard was seriously wounded in the clash.
Timeline of the Kosovo War. Abbreviations:
The Battle of Paštrik was a two-week confrontation between the KLA with NATO's support against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999, during the Kosovo War. The official goal of the KLA was to seize the border between Albania and Kosovo, and eliminate the Yugoslav units there. The offensive was codenamed "Operation Arrow" by the KLA.
Operation Fenix was an operation launched by militants of the KLA's "cobra" unit, which conducted two ambushes out of Albanian territory near the border outpost of Koshare on Yugoslav forces. Six Yugoslav Army personnel were killed. The KLA suffered no casualties, and captured Yugoslav ammunition, equipment and robbed the dead soldiers.
Operation Eagle was a military operation by the "Kobra Unit" of the Kosovo Liberation Army in the villages of Voksh and Sllup against Yugoslav forces. The engagement resulted in the deaths of six Yugoslav policemen and soldiers, meanwhile the KLA sufferred no casualties. The KLA also managed to capture Yugoslav ammunition and equipment, before withdrawing back to the Yugoslav-Albanian border.
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Kosovo Liberation Army 
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