# Battle of Drënas

The Battle of Drënas (in Serbian: Unblocking Glogovac, in Serbian Cyrillic: Деблокада Глоговца, in Albanian: Beteja e Drenasit) was an action carried out by members of the Yugoslav Army and the Police of Serbia against the Kosovo Liberation Army on 25 September 1998, with its goal being breaking the isolation of the garrison and of the civilians in Drenas and re-enstablish connections between the Serb-controlled Kosovo and this area. During this battle, the KLA suffered the biggest losses in just one day since the Albanian-Yugoslav border ambush.

## Background
### Beginning of the War

After the attacks on Likošane, Ćirez and Donji Prekaz the KLA attacks intensified, escalating into the Kosovo War.

### The situation in Drenas

Particularly, Drenas and its surroundings, was one of the most attacked areas in 1998. In September 1998, KLA militants fortified themselves extremely well in the mountain of Čičavica, making it one of the most important strongholds for carrying out attacks in the region. In the area, they also dug deep trenches, dugouts and bunkers and because of this all the roads and paths that led to Čičavica were full of anti-tank and anti-personnel mines. Near those areas, in Drenas itself, were 150-200 KLA militants, who used rifles and hand-held rocket launchers to carry out attacks.

## Course of the Battle

Due to KLA's activity near Drenas, about 200 Serbian soldiers and policemen set out on September 25, at around 10:00 AM, to retake control over the strongholds. Because the KLA used many of its pre-made defences, the artillery preparation of the Serbian forces lasted 60 minutes. After that, the Serbian infantry finally attacked the stronghold. During the first wave of attacks, the Serbian soldiers managed to advance up to 350 meters in the area, also with the use of M53/59 Praga vehicles, M36 destroyers and T-54/T-55 tanks, before the fights actually began. In this wave, the first positions of the KLA were immediately destroyed by fire from BRDMs and M53/59 Pragas, after which they retreated to previously made dugouts. Then, about thirty policemen were attacked and ambushed by the KLA, and the radio communication systems were requested.
After a while, Sergeant Nenad Vuković successfully sent aid to the ambushed policemen. While they tried to escape, they found themselves under fire by RBRs and M2 Brownings of the KLA. Again, Nenad Vuković had to move to open fire, and this time the ambushed policemen managed to escape the attacks. During this action, his BRDM-2 gets stuck while exiting the asphalt road, while his M53/59 Praga was about 100 meters behind that vehicle. At least two rockets from RBR Osa were fired at the vehicle, destroying it.
After that, all the vehicles started to fire at the KLA militants who, after just 20 minutes of firing, began to flee along the railway towards the mountain of Čičavica. Soon, soldiers and policemen enter the trenches where about 60 militants died. They also found the corpse of a girl in a camouflage uniform who shot Sergeant Vuković several times during the previous clashes, wounding him. After that, during the night, Serbian forces recaptured Drenas, established a line and set up an observation post and a guard. One KLA militant who strayed during the fighting was also arrested after the battle.