# Battle of Baballoq

The Battle of Baballoq was a key confrontation that took place in 1998 in the Dukagjini region of Kosovo, marking one of the first major engagements between the Kosovo Liberation Army and Serbian forces during the Kosovo War.

## Background

In February 1998, KLA attacks intensified, centering on the Drenica valley area with the compound of Adem Jashari being a focal point. Days after Robert Gelbard described the KLA as a terrorist group, Serbian police responded to the KLA attacks in the Likošane area, and pursued some of the KLA to Čirez, resulting in the deaths of 16 Albanian fighters and 26 civilians in the attacks on Likoshane and Çirez. and four Serbian policemen. The KLA's goal was to merge its Drenica stronghold with their stronghold in Albania proper, and this would shape the first few months of the fighting.
On the 13th of June 1995, the KLA issued a communique against Serbian refugees placed in Baballoq, where Slobodan Milošević had built a new settlement to house them in.
Serb police then began to pursue Adem Jashari and his followers in the village of Donje Prekaze. On 5 March 1998, a massive firefight at the Jashari compound led to the massacre of 60 Albanians, of which eighteen were women and ten were under the age of sixteen. The event provoked massive condemnation from western capitals. Madeleine Albright said that "this crisis is not an internal affair of the FRY".
On 24 March, Yugoslav forces surrounded the village of Glodjane and attacked a rebel compound there. Despite superior firepower, the Yugoslav forces failed to destroy the KLA unit, which had been their objective. Although there were deaths and severe injuries on the Albanian side, the insurgency in Glodjane was far from stamped out. The village was in fact to become one of the strongest centres of resistance in the upcoming war.

## Battle

The Battle of Baballoq started on 21 April 1998 at 10:45 AM when Yugoslav forces started shelling the village of Baballoq. The KLA, composed of 140 volunteers from the village and many other KLA soldiers set up a defensive line which stopped Yugoslav advancement. Yugoslav forces continued attacking the village however the KLA ultimately repelled their attacks. Central to the defence was the creation of a minefield on the main road of the village. During the battle the Yugoslav forces also repeatedly shelled the village with artillery that they placed in strategic areas such as "Podi i Gështenjave" in Deçan, Areas around Bitesh and Baballoq and Crmičani. During the battle many KLA soldiers from the Dukagjini Operational Zone led by the Haradinaj brothers "joined-in" on the fighting. During the battle small groups of KLA members led around 10 trips to Albania to resupply with weapons and ammunition.The fighting lasted until August 1998 and ultimately Yugoslav forces were unable to capture the village.

## Aftermath

The battle of Baballoq marked the beginning of the frontal war in the Dukagjini region. After the battle the Yugoslav forces also increased deployment in the region.

### April 23, 1998, Albanian–Yugoslav border ambush

On the morning of April 23, 1998, a band of Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) fighters was ambushed by a group of Yugoslav Army (VJ) border guards near the Košare outpost, just west of Deçan. The fighters had been trying to smuggle weapons and supplies into Kosovo via northern Albania. Nineteen were killed in the ensuing attack, and a further two were captured. The VJ did not sustain any casualties. Some of the militants retreated back to Albania, while others managed to break through the ambush and make it past the Yugoslav border, into Kosovo. Following the clash, the VJ confiscated a large quantity of arms that the militants had been transporting.

### First Battle of Drenoc

Sometime after 26 April 1998 the Kosovo Liberation Army would take the village of Drenoc after a battle with the Yugoslav forces as a part of their attempts to grow their claims over the Dukagjini region.