

The HV ( Hrvatska vojska) played a more active role in western Bosnia, acting in concert with the Bosnian Croat HVO to combat Bosnian Serb forces. Croatian military operations, like Operation Medak Pocket and Operation Flash, started reducing the area of Krajina by returning small territories to Croatian control, while Serbs responded by shelling nearby Croatian towns of which the most internationally notable was the Zagreb rocket attack during May, 1995. During the next three years, the conflict was mostly on hold: the Serbian side aimed at consolidating their territorial gains through Krajina, while the Croatian side aimed at returning those areas back to its jurisdiction.

In January 1992, a ceasefire agreement was signed by Presidents Franjo Tuđman of Croatia and Slobodan Milošević of Serbia to suspend fighting between the two sides. As of November 1993, less than 400 ethnic Croats still resided in UNPA Sector South, and between 1,500 and 2,000 remained in UNPA Sector North. A campaign of ethnic cleansing was then started by rebel Serb forces against Croatian civilians in the areas under their control and most non-Serbs were expelled by early 1993. The Serbs declared their independence from Croatia by proclaiming a Republic of Serbian Krajina, which remained internationally unrecognized, and initiated an armed conflict, supported by the Yugoslav People's Army, against Croatian police and civilians. The 1990 revolt of the Croatian Serbs was centered on the predominantly Serb-populated Krajina region and in predominantly Serbian towns (like Borovo) in eastern Croatia.

Main article: Croatian War of Independence The operation, which lasted 84 hours, was documented as the largest European land offensive since World War II. The Croatian forces swiftly captured the entire region in four days, effectively ending the operation on 8 August.

By the second day of the operation, the Serb forces collapsed and the bulk of the RSK army retreated. Their forces soon broke through the lines of the Krajina Serb army and began a rapid advance toward the capital of Knin. Īfter the second Srebrenica Massacre, there were concerns that there would be a repeat of the massacre in the Bihać pocket area, where the population of Bosniaks was four times larger than in Srebrenica and which was surrounded and under attack by Bosnian Serb and Croatian Serb forces, as well as by Bosniaks who were aided by the Serbs.Īt dawn on 4 August 1995, the attack began with 150,000 Croatian Army troops amassed along 300 kilometres of front lines.
PLAMEN MAESTRAL N CODE
Operation Storm ( Croatian/ Bosnian/ Serbian: Operacija Oluja, Cyrillic: Oпeрaциja Oлуja) is the code name given to a large-scale military operation carried out by Croatian Armed Forces, in conjunction with the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to gain back control of parts of Croatia which had been claimed by separatist ethnic Serbs, since early 1991. Yugoslavia recognizes Croatia's independence Ĭroatia regained 10,500 km 2 (4,100 sq mi) of territory.Part of the Croatian War of Independence and the Bosnian War For the Polish Second World War partisan operation, see Operation Tempest. For the 1979 Soviet Army operation in Afghanistan, see Operation Storm-333. This article is about the 1995 Croatian Army operation.
