page_title: Battle of Vrbanja Bridge
section_title: Aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Vrbanja Bridge / Aftermath
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Visite du Général d'armée François Lecointre, chef d'État-Major des armées (CEMA) à l'Ecole polytechnique à l'occasion du Forum 2017 de la DGA
context_page_description: The Battle of Vrbanja Bridge was an armed confrontation which occurred on 27 May 1995 between United Nations peacekeepers from the French Army and elements of the Bosnian Serb Army of Republika Srpska. It began after the VRS seized French-manned United Nations Protection Force observation posts on both ends of the Vrbanja Bridge crossing of the Miljacka river in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian War. Upon seizing the bridge, the VRS took the French peacekeepers hostage.
  A platoon of 30 French peacekeepers led by then Captain François Lecointre subsequently re-captured the bridge with the support of 70 French infantrymen and direct fire from armoured vehicles, in an action which saw the first French Army bayonet charge since the Korean War. During the French assault, elements of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina opened fire on the VRS-held observation posts, accidentally wounding one French hostage.
  Two French soldiers were killed during the battle, 10 were wounded, and one died of wounds later that day. VRS casualties were four killed, three wounded and four captured.
context_section_description: Facing the ongoing hostage crisis, Smith and other top UN commanders began to shift strategy. The UN began redeploying its forces to more defensible locations, so that they would be harder to attack and so that it would be more difficult to take UN personnel hostage. On 16 June 1995, United Nations Security Council Resolution 998 was passed, establishing a British-French-Dutch UN Rapid Reaction Force (UN RRF) under Smith's direction. Authorised to a strength of 12,500 troops, the UN RRF was a heavily-armed land unit with more aggressive rules of engagement, designed to take offensive action if necessary to prevent hostage-taking and enforce peace agreements. The UN hostages were released two days later, as were the four VRS soldiers. 
  As the UN RRF deployed in June and July, it became clear that the UN was moving towards a peace enforcement stance rather than a peacekeeping one, with the British sending artillery and an air-mobile brigade including attack helicopters, and the force not painting its vehicles white or wearing blue helmets, as was usual on UN missions. On 1 August, following the fall of the UN safe areas of Srebrenica and Žepa to the VRS, senior British, French and United States officers warned the VRS commander, General Ratko Mladić that any further attacks on UN safe areas would result in NATO and the UN using "disproportionate" and "overwhelming" force.
  According to the top French officers involved in the battle, the action on Vrbanja Bridge showed the VRS that UNPROFOR's attitude had changed. Following the battle, VRS forces were observed to be less likely to engage French UN peacekeepers deployed in the city. Lieutenant Colonel Erik Roussel, an officer from FREBAT4 who had participated in the operation, stated later that "since the incident, the Serbs are strangely quiet towards us." Chirac's actions were not backed by all of his government, and the French Chief of the Defence Staff, Admiral Jacques Lanxade, threatened to resign. Lanxade was supported by French Prime Minister Alain Juppé and by Defence Minister Charles Millon, but they were overruled by Chirac.
  On 30 August, at the commencement of NATO's Operation Deliberate Force, a combined air and ground campaign against the VRS, the UN RRF fired 600 artillery rounds on VRS artillery positions around Sarajevo, and the UN RRF played an important part in ending the siege and in forcing the Bosnian Serbs to the negotiating table later that year. On 20 December 1995, UNPROFOR was relieved by the NATO Implementation Force, following the successful negotiation of the Dayton Agreement peace accords. A memorial to the French soldiers killed in action was unveiled on 5 April 1996, along with a plaque commemorating Dilberović and Sučić. That day, the bridge was renamed in memory of the two women. In 2017, now General Lecointre, made famous by the bayonet charge at the bridge, was appointed as the French Chief of the Defence Staff.
caption: General François Lecointre, who led the French troops during the battle, speaking at an event at École polytechnique in Palaiseau in 2017
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