# Albanian–Yugoslav border conflict (1998–1999)

The Albanian–Yugoslav border conflict was a one-year undeclared military confrontation between Albania and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War. The conflict primarily involved cross-border clashes and incursions, as Yugoslav forces pursued Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) fighters operating near the Albanian-Yugoslav border. The most significant engagement occurred in April 1999 near Krumë, Albania, resulting in a tense standoff between Yugoslav and Albanian forces.

## Background

Following World War II, Kosovo was given the status of an autonomous province within the Socialist Republic of Serbia, one of six constitutional republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. After the death of Yugoslavia's long-time leader Josip Broz Tito in 1980, Yugoslavia's political system began to unravel. In 1989, Belgrade revoked Kosovo's autonomy. Kosovo, a province inhabited predominantly by ethnic Albanians, was of great historical and cultural significance to Serbs. Alarmed by their dwindling numbers, the province's Serbs began to fear that they were being "squeezed out" by the Albanians, and ethnic tensions worsened. As soon as Kosovo's autonomy was abolished, a minority government run by Serbs and Montenegrins was appointed by Serbian President Slobodan Milošević to oversee the province, enforced by thousands of heavily armed paramilitaries from Serbia-proper. Albanian culture was systematically repressed and hundreds of thousands of Albanians working in state-owned companies lost their jobs.
In 1996, a group of Albanian nationalists calling themselves the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) began attacking the Yugoslav Army (Serbo-Croatian: Vojska Jugoslavije; VJ) and the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs (Serbo-Croatian: Ministarstvo unutrašnjih poslova; MUP) in Kosovo. Their goal was to separate the province from the rest of Yugoslavia, which following the separation of Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1991–92, was just a rump federation consisting of Serbia and Montenegro. At first, the KLA carried out hit-and-run attacks (31 in 1996, 55 in 1997, and 66 in January and February 1998 alone). It quickly gained popularity among young Kosovo Albanians, many of whom rejected the non-violent resistance to Yugoslav authorities advocated by the politician Ibrahim Rugova and favoured a more aggressive approach. The organization received a significant boost in 1997, when an armed uprising in neighbouring Albania led to thousands of weapons from the Albanian Army's depots being looted. Many of these weapons ended up in the hands of the KLA. Cross-border arms smuggling flourished; the unit charged with securing the Yugoslav border was the 549th Motorized Brigade, under the command of General Božidar Delić.
The KLA's popularity skyrocketed after the VJ and MUP attacked the compound of KLA leader Adem Jashari in March 1998, killing him, his closest associates and most of his family. The attack motivated thousands of young Kosovo Albanians to join the ranks of the KLA, fueling the Kosovar uprising that eventually erupted in the spring of 1998.

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

On 23 April 1998, at 5:45, the 53rd border Battalion incountered a group of 150-200 KLA insurgents near the Košare border post, Deçan, who were attempting to smuggle weapons from Albania. Armed with howitzers and rocket launchers, the Yugoslav army ambushed the militants, leading to a fierce clash breaking out, with the fighting lasting the whole night. After the fighting, 19 militants were killed, 1 was injured and 2 were captured. The remaining militants escaped the ambush and fled back to Albania. On the other hand the Yugoslav forces suffered no reported casualties, despite being outnumbered.
The next day after the ambush, the residents of the village of Botushë reported artillery fire and helicopters flying ahead.

### July 18, 1998, Albanian–Yugoslav border clashes

On 18 July 1998, a group of KLA insurgents together with a small group of mujahedeen (most of which were civilians from Saudi Arabia) crossed the border between Albania and Yugoslavia before being ambushed by the 53rd border battalion. The insurgents were smuggling weapons to Kosovo, some claims suggest that they were trying to reinforce their forces in Orahovac. Estimates on the number of KLA fighters vary, Human Rights Watch claimed that there were around 200 KLA insurgents together with 24 mujahedeen, the political scientist David L. Phillips and diplomat Nicholas Burns state that there were 22 mujahideen and 300 KLA fighters, Tim Judah, a journalist specializing in the Balkans, believes that the group may have been made up of as many as 700 militants, and the VJ stated that there were up to 1000 militants. In the ensuing fight 4 KLA fighters would be killed together with 18 mujahedeen, while the other militants would escape. 1 Yugoslav soldier was heavily wounded and another was lightly wounded. A large stash of guns dropped by the KLA during their retreat would be siezed by Yugoslav forces.

#### Albanian-Yugoslav border shelling

The next day on 19 July 1998, the Yugoslav forces shelled KLA insurgents near the Albanian border. Initial reports claimed that 30 KLA militants were killed, however later reports revealed that there were no deaths, however 31 KLA militants were injured.

### Battle of Morina

On 7 July 1998, the Yugoslav forces entered the village of Morina, the nearest village to the Albanian border. There they were attacked by a group of KLA militants. In the ensuing battle 6 KLA militants would be killed, however the Yugoslav casualties would be greater, with many soldiers being killed, leading to the Yugoslav army retreating from Morina.

### Battle of Opljaz

On 9 August 1998, the KLA's 138th brigade commanded by Agim Ramadani led an operation in the village of Oplazë (romanized: "Opljaz") on the Albanian-Yugoslav border. The operation was a KLA success with 17-20 Yugoslav soldiers being killed, including 2 Yugoslav army officers. The KLA reported no casualties.

### Operation in Gjeravica

On 15 September 1998 the 138th brigade led by Agim Ramadani led another operation on the Albanian-Yugoslav border. The operation was carried out in areas in and near Mt.Gjeravica where the KLA killed 40 Yugoslav soldiers and injured another 20.

### Operation Fenix

On 30 September 1998, the KLA's 138th brigade led by Agim Ramadani, composed of 30 soldiers, carried out an operation near the Albanian-Yugoslav border codenamed "Operation Fenix". The militants laid anti-tank mines on the ground, leading to a Yugoslav tank running one over. The mine exploded, leading to 1 soldier being killed and 4 being injured. The Yugoslav army quickly brought in a helicopter to rescue the injured troops, however it was fired upon by the militants. Shortly after, another ambush was carried near the Košare outpost, where the KLA fired upon Yugoslav armored vehicles, killing 5 soldiers and wounding 2 aswell as destroying a Yugoslav BOV and damaging a Yugoslav Pinzgauer. The KLA then robbed the dead corpses. Another helicopter came down to the "ambush-scene" but was instantly fired upon and retreated.

### December 3, 1998, Albanian–Yugoslav border clash

On the 3rd of December 1998, a Yugoslav border guard was fired upon by a group of 9 KLA insurgents. In the returning fire, the Yugoslav forces killed 8 of the militants, while the 9th escaped. This was the most serious war incident in the Kosovo War since a truce had been negotiated a month and a half earlier.

### December 14, 1998, Albanian–Yugoslav border ambush

In the morning of 14 December 1998, a group of 140 armed KLA militants led by Mujë Krasniqi were attempting to smuggle weapons into Kosovo through Albania, however they were ambushed between Goroždup and Liken, in Kušnin. The militants were returning from a military training base in North Albania. After the initial ambush the battle would last the whole night. By the end of the battle 36 militants would be killed, 12 would be wounded and another 9 would be captured. According to Albanian sources 41 militants would be killed. One of the killed on the KLA-side was general Mujë Krasniqi. The Yugoslav forces suffered no casualties.

### Battle of Košare

On 9 April 1999, at 03:00, an artillery barrage began from the Albanian side of the border, aimed in the direction of the Košare military outpost, which was occupied by the Yugoslav Army, in what became one of the bloodiest battles of the Kosovo War. The Albanians attacked in three directions, the first was towards Rrasa e Koshares, the second was towards the well-defended Košare outpost and the third was towards Maja Glava. Approximately 136 KLA soldiers reached the border and attacked Yugoslav positions. At that time less than 200 members of the Yugoslav Army were stationed at the front line. Bloody fighting ensued and lasted the whole day with 4 dead and one wounded on the Albanian side and 23 dead on the Yugoslav side. Later, the KLA seized the peak of Rrasa e Koshares and immediately began entrenching themselves. Serbian reports claimed that the KLA insurgents were assisted by British, French, German and Italian special forces.
The battle continued until the next morning. Then, with artillery support, the KLA took Maja Glava and continued to bombard the Košare Outpost, which resulted in the Yugoslav soldiers having to abandon their posts. At 19:00, members of the KLA entered the abandoned outpost and CNN and the British BBC broadcast images of a great number of KLA militants taking the outpost.
Members of the Yugoslav Forces then retreated towards the second line of defense above the outpost. Those positions were easier to defend. The next day, Yugoslav reserve troops arrived to relieve the First Army. One batch of KLA soldiers managed to cut the Yugoslav line of communications, and managed to destroy one BOV armoured personnel carrier. During the night, the KLA attacked the Yugoslav Army at Opijaz, trying to shatter the resistance of the Yugoslav soldiers, but all of the attacks were unsuccessful and resulted in the Yugoslav Army inflicting heavy losses on the KLA insurgents. Meanwhile, the Yugoslavs managed to bring in their Special Forces and also a few artillery pieces.

#### Yugoslav counter-offensive on Maja Glava

Albanian Army and KLA artillery continued to shell the Yugoslav Army's positions from Maja Glava and Rrasa e Koshares. The Yugoslav Army Headquarters decided to launch a sudden attack and surprise the enemy. On 14 April, Yugoslav troops attacked Maja Glava. The distance between the two enemy trenches wasn't longer than 50 meters. The Yugoslav Army was unable to take Maja Glava completely, but it prevented the Albanians' artillery from engaging them from their positions. The Maja Glava front was stabilized until the end of the war, without any changes on the lines.
In April, there weren't any changes on the front lines at Rrasa e Koshares and both sides suffered heavy losses.

#### KLA attack on Rrasa e Koshares

During the day, Hisen Berisha drove to the Košare outpost, to meet with KLA fighters. At dusk, the KLA fighters split into two groups. KLA fighters opened fire on the direction of Yugoslav forces, in an attempt to draw fire from Yugoslav forces and identifying their positions. Fierce fighting continued until the morning, with the KLA claiming to have killed 47 Yugoslav soldiers, while seven were dead on the Albanian side.

#### Yugoslav offensive on Rrasa e Koshares

May began with several unsuccessful attacks by the Yugoslav Army to take back the Košare outpost. The attacks were made unsuccessful because of the constant artillery fire aimed at their positions. On 6 May, the Yugoslav Army counterattacked at Rrasa e Koshares, in an effort to halt the artillery bombardment. A bloody skirmish ensued, but the Yugoslav Army did not manage to take Rrasa e Koshares. On 10 May, the Yugoslav Army sent two T-55 tanks to help stabilize the offensive on Rrasa e Koshares. When the tanks penetrated the KLA's lines, they advanced over 100 meters into insurgent-held territory, but the KLA still managed to retain control of Rrasa e Koshares. During the night of 10/11 May, NATO bombers dropped dozens of bombs on the Yugoslav troops who had attacked KLA positions around Rrasa e Koshares. At least in two of these instances NATO dropped cluster bombs on Yugoslav army troops. In these attacks, NATO killed eight Yugoslav soldiers and one officer and managed to wound over 40. The KLA seized the opportunity to attack and fought the Yugoslav soldiers out of their positions and forced them back.

#### KLA attack near Junik

On 19 or 20 May, the KLA attacked a Yugoslav Special Forces' position near Junik. The KLA claimed to have managed to kill 14 Yugoslav Special Forces members after bitter fighting, whilst they suffered no losses. One of the killed was Russian citizen Bulakh Vitaly Glebovich. Documents retrieved from Glebovich's body showed he was an officer within the Russian Army, while Moscow confirmed that there was an officer by the same name who had been discharged from the Russian Army due to medical conditions with the name that the KLA had provided. The KLA presented this as evidence of Russian involvement in the war and sent a strong letter of protest to the Russian embassy in Tirana, demanding 5,000 firearms with ammunition as ransom for the retrieval of the body. Yugoslavia reported Glebovich was killed while fighting as a volunteer.

#### NATO friendly fire on Košare Outpost

On 22 May, NATO aircraft mistakenly bombed KLA positions. Some KLA commanders would later say that this was intentional to stop the KLA from making further gains. According to the KLA, seven of their fighters were killed and 27 wounded in the strike. After the war, PBS said that 67 people were reported as having died in the raid.

### Albanian-Yugoslav border incident

During the month of April 1999 Yugoslav infantry would enter Albania, shelling villages near Krumës,Tropojë and Kukës. The Yugoslav forces pushed 2km into Northern Albania due to them facing no resistance, however the Yugoslav government denied these claims. The main goal in this operation was to blockade KLA forces.

#### Shelling on Krumës

On 13 April 1999, the Yugoslav army led by Dragan Živanović shelled Albanian refugees in Krumës, however the shelling failed to cause any casualties, only destroying 3 houses. When the Kukës division arrived led by Kudusi Lama together with a number of KLA militants, the Yugoslav forces withdrew.

#### Yugoslav withdrawal from Tropoja and Kukës

With the arrival of the Kukës division, the Yugoslav troops also withdrew from the areas near Tropojë and Krumës, and eventually from the 2km of land that they had pushed into. After the incident Albania broke all ties with Yugoslavia.

### Battle of Paštrik

The offensive began at 4 am, when KLA troops attacked across a ten mile front from their operating areas, supported by barrages from the Albanian army and NATO air support. They quickly overran Yugoslav observation points and watchtowers. Once past the border, some units appear to have gone to the northern side of the mountain from which they could observe armored units in Gjakova. Other units went over the mountain or to the forests south of it. When Colonel Delić realized an offensive was underway, he ordered his troops to entrench and responded to the attack with howitzer and mortars. He ordered his artillery to target the avenues leading to the mountain. These barrages compromised the KLA's offensive capabilities for the next two days. Despite extensive use of NATO air strikes, they did little to stop Yugoslav artillery from attacking KLA supply lines within Albania. As combat continued in the border settlements, KLA sources reported that they had overrun Planeja and were moving towards Gjonaj.

#### Increased NATO air strikes

On 1 June, NATO aircraft launched around 150 sorties on VJ targets. NATO claimed to have hit 32 artillery pieces, 9 personnel carriers, 6 armored vehicles, 4 other military vehicles, 8 mortar positions and one SA6 surface to air missile. NATO throughout the campaign kept the KLA at an arms length. The KLA offensive had reached a stalemate, and the Yugoslav army appeared to be organizing a counter offensive. NATO fearing Milošević would get a better position at the negotiating table if they recaptured the gains made by the KLA stepped up their bombing campaign. According to Dana Priest, Wesley Clark told his officers, "That mountain is not going to get lost. I'm not going to have Serbs on that mountain. We'll pay for that hill with American blood if we don't help [the KLA] hold it." Some NATO air strikes hit KLA positions, however the KLA did not suffer any casualties from NATO friendly fire at that time. These air strikes gave the KLA opportunities to attack. The Yugoslav army responded to this by shelling settlements at the border with Albania including the settlements of Pergolaj, Golaj and Krumë. These strikes didn't hit any civilian targets, but increased the refugee flows in Kukës and put pressure on the administration. Albania responded to this by mobilizing its army to the border and conducting a high profile live fire exercise.

#### Stalemate

On 6 June, the Yugoslav Army launched a counter offensive near Planeja. As the Yugoslav soldiers advanced towards Planeja, they were hit by 82 unguided Mark 82 bombs from two B-52s and a B-1B. There are conflicting accounts about the casualties suffered by the Yugoslav troops. The Washington Post Foreign Service, which also claim that the strike involved the use of cluster munition, put the toll in "several hundreds". According to some testimonies from KLA fighters, they suffered serious casualties but according to other KLA reports most were able to get into safety before the impact. A ground inspection by German KFOR troops following the end of hostilities found no wreckages of any vehicles or tanks. On June 7, bombing and ground fighting continued around Pashtrik. On June 9, the Yugoslav army retreated and the Military Technical Agreement was signed for the withdrawal of all Yugoslav forces from Kosovo.

## Aftermath

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, by March 1999 (prior to NATO bombing), more than 200,000 Albanian civilians were internally displaced, almost 70,000 Albanians had fled the province to neighboring countries and Montenegro, and a further 100,000 Yugoslav nationals, mostly Kosovar Albanians, had sought asylum in Western Europe. Also, thousands of ethnic Albanian villages in Kosovo had been partially or completely destroyed by burning or shelling.
Within three weeks of the start of NATO strategic bombing during the Kosovo War, there were 525,787 refugees from Kosovo in neighboring countries. A month later, on 12 May, the total number of refugees had risen to 781,618. By June 1999, the Yugoslav military, Serbian police and paramilitaries had expelled 862,979 Albanians from Kosovo; the claim was disputed by many Serbian politicians. and several hundred thousand more were internally displaced, in addition to those displaced prior to March. Approximately 440,000 refugees crossed the border to Albania and 320,000 to Macedonia. Montenegro hosted around 70,000 refugees, and Bosnia and Herzegovina received more than 30,000. Amnesty International estimated that "nearly one million people have been forced to flee Kosovo".
The war would end with the Kumanovo Agreement on 6 June 1999. As a part of the agreement, the Kosovar refugees in Albania returned to Kosovo.