# Battle for Bosanski Brod

The Battle for Bosanski Brod was fought from September 27 to October 7, 1992, between the Army of Republika Srpska and police units of the Republic of Serbian Krajina, on the one hand, and the Croatian Army, the Croatian Defense Council, and the Croatian Defence Forces, on the other, in the final part of Operation Corridor 92.

## Prelude

The fighting in Posavina began on 3 March 1992, after the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) declared a Serb municipality in Bosanski Brod, trying to take control away from Bosniaks and Croats. Serbian Territorial Defense forces set up barricades in the town and tried to seize the strategically important bridge linking the town with Croatia, prompting the local Croats and Muslims to form a joint headquarters, and to request assistance from the Croatian Army, based just across the border in Slavonski Brod. According to a local report, 200 shells fell on Bosanski Brod on the first day of the Serb attack. Neither side managed to prevail, and the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) sent its 327th Motorized Brigade to the city. Following a ceasefire of several weeks the JNA and Serb militias once again attacked the town, launching a heavy artillery bombardment and sniper fire, and looting took place in the Croat quarter of the town.
In March of 1992, Croatian paramilitary forces entered Bosanski Brod and began committing crimes against Serb civilians. According to the testimony of General Boško Kelečević, Chief of Staff of the 1st Krajina Corps of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS), 51 civilians were killed in the village of Sijekovac alone in the first month. This was the first organized crime against the Serb population of the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Between March and October 1992, members of the Croatian Defence Forces and the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) committed several crimes against the Serbian civilian population in Bosanski Brod. Several concentration camps operated in the town, and it is estimated that around 2,000 Serb civilians passed through them.
On March 26 alone, between 11 and 58 serb civilians were killed in Sijekovac, of whom 18 were children. From the area of Brod and surrounding areas, 76 Serbian civilians were listed as killed, while many are listed as missing. In the village of Liješće, the village church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit from 1869 was demolished.
The authorities of Republika Srpska marked the site with a monument listing 47 casualties. Among those publicly implicated by the Serbian side are the 108th brigade of Croatian National Guard (by then renamed into the Croatian Army), the Intervention Squad of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Croatian Defence Forces.
Among Serbs in Posavina, there was still a strong awareness of the Ustaše genocide from World War II, especially reinforced by the fact that the brigades of the Croatian Defence Council used Ustaše symbols on their emblems, such as the Latin letter "U".

## Situation on the ground

During August and September 1992, the Army of Republika Srpska attempted to cut the bridgehead at Bosanski Brod on several occasions, but without success. The Croatian Defence Council and the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) constantly exerted pressure on the parts of the road that were under VRS control.

## The battle

The advance of September 27 initially had moderate success, until 4 October when the VRS rebalanced its forces, changing the sector of the bridgehead against which the 1st Krajina Corps was concentrated. The move managed to disrupt the HVO and HV defences and the VRS achieved a breakthrough, capturing Bosanski Brod on 6 October at 22:00. In response, the HV and the HVO withdrew their troops and equipment in an orderly fashion in the night between 5-6 October, and the bridge spanning the Sava between the town and Slavonski Brod was demolished on 7 October, thus ending the Battle for Brod.
The outcome of the battle shocked the Croatian commander and later resulted in speculation about its cause. General Petar Stipetić blamed the 108th Infantry Brigade for the collapse of the Bosanski Brod bridgehead and the failure of the defence. He claimed the brigade had been pulled back from the battlefield by civilian authorities in Slavonski Brod and thought the outcome of the battle was predetermined by the Graz agreement of the Bosnian Serb and Bosnian Croat leaders, Radovan Karadžić and Mate Boban.
With the capture of Bosanski Brod, Operation Corridor 92 came to an end. Croatian sources mention that at the end of the battle, around 8,000 refugees crossed from Bosanski to Slavonski Brod, but since the fighting continued around the bridge on the Sava, which was then mined by Croatian forces, this number is likely to be exaggerated.