Operation Maestral
| date | September 8 to September 17, 1995 |
|---|---|
| place | Bosnia and Herzegovina |
| Casus Belli | Rejection of the Vance-Owen Plan by the Serbian population of Bosnia |
| output | Defeat of the Serbian troops and the conquest of Bosnia and Herzegovina by the Croatian and Bosnian armed forces |
| consequences |
Operation Sana Dayton Agreement |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
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| Commander | |
| losses | |
| unknown number of civilians | |
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The operation Maestral was a joint military offensive of the Croatian and Bosnian army in the Bosnian war . The operation followed on from Operation Oluja and lasted from September 8-17, 1995.
prehistory
After the conquest of the Republic of Serbian Krajina on the territory of Croatia and the de facto end of the Croatian War , the presidents Franjo Tuđman and Alija Izetbegović had agreed on a coalition and military action. The aim was to end the Bosnian War by liberating Bosnia and Herzegovina .
course
Within a few days, the troops of the Republika Srpska under the command of Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić , who at that time held 70% of Bosnia-Herzegovina , were pushed back by Bosnian and Croatian units to an area of 47%.
NATO air forces flew missions against some Serbian positions in the run-up to Operation Deliberate Force .
The first phase of the operation ( Mistral 1 ) began on September 8th. Over the next few days, the Serbs' lines of defense were broken. At this time the forces of the Republika Srpska were still in possession of seven light infantry brigades , a motorized brigade and two tanks - battalions .
The city of Šipovo was quickly conquered and the 7th Guard Brigade of the Croatian Army captured the strategically important mountain pass at Mliništa . With the capture of Jajce , the first phase of the operation ended after five days.
On September 14th the second phase of the operation ( Mistral 2 ) began with the capture of Drvar . In the days that followed, the Croatian armed forces continued to advance towards the southeast. At the end of the operation on September 30, the Croatians were standing in front of Mrkonjić Grad , 40 km as the crow flies from Banja Luka , the Bosnian-Serb capital.
Simultaneously with the attack by the Croats, the Bosnian 5th Corps advanced from Bihać towards Banja Luka. First, the cities of Bosanska Krupa , Bosanski Petrovac and Ključ were captured until the attack at Prijedor was stopped. Although the Bosnian activities were not part of Operation Maestral, the Croatian and Bosnian units proceeded in a coordinated manner.
This military operation was finally stopped at the urging of NATO. While the Croatian Armed Forces carried out only minor operations in October, the Bosnian armed forces continued to attack the Serbs in Operation Sana .
consequences
Due to the liberation of a little more than half of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian mission agreed to the Dayton Treaty and the Bosnian War was ended.
literature
- David N. Gibbs: First Do No Harm: Humanitarian Intervention and the Destruction of Yugoslavia . Vanderbilt Univ. Pr., ISBN 0-8265-1644-0
- Brendan O'Shea, Michael Fisk: Crisis at Bihac: Bosnia's Bloody Battlefield . Sutton Publishing Ltd., 1998, ISBN 0-7509-1927-2