Bomb attack on Serbian coaches near Podujevo
According to today's border, Podujevo is in Kosovo
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The bomb attack on Serbian coaches near Podujevo was a terrorist attack on February 16, 2001 on several Serbian coaches coming from the city of Gračanica and driving towards Niš in the village of Livadice near Podujevo in the then UN protectorate of Kosovo . The bombing killed 11 Serb civilians, including a two-year-old child, and seriously injured several dozen. The attack near Podujevo was committed by Kosovar Albanian extremists .
history
The so-called Niš-ekspres was a convoy of several buses that drove with about 200 Serbian travelers from Gračanica towards the city of Niš. The convoy was under the protection of the British unit of KFOR and was escorted by five Swedish armored vehicles . A remote-controlled bomb exploded at noon in the immediate vicinity of the convoy as it was being guided through the city of Podujevo, which was mostly populated by Albanians . The travelers had previously visited family graves in Gračanica. The first bus took the full force of the explosion. 11 inmates died and 40 were seriously injured.
Kosovar Albanian extremists were immediately suspected to be the perpetrators of the attack. Five Albanian men were arrested and transferred to a US - prison camp brought, but escaped in 2002 four of them. The remaining suspect, Florim Ejupi , was found guilty in 2008 and sentenced to 40 years in prison . However, he was released on March 13, 2009 under mysterious circumstances.