Croatian special police order of battle in 1991 – 95 The order of battle of the Croatian special police in 1991 – 95 included up to 30 individual special forces units subordinated to the Ministry of the Interior . The special police was created around the Ministry of the Interior ' s existing airborne special forces unit following an open revolt of the Croatian Serbs in August 1990 . It further developed with the increasing involvement of the Yugoslav People ' s Army in the conflict , which escalated into the Croatian War of Independence in 1991 . The special police took part in the first clashes of the war in Pakrac and at the Plitvice Lakes . The 3 , 000 - strong special forces then became Croatia ' s most effective fighting force as it had no army . Even though several special police units were transformed into the Croatian National Guard ( later renamed the Croatian Army ) in 1991 , the special police continued to operate throughout the war as special forces units supporting virtually all army operations . The last large deployment of the special police in the war occurred in Operation Storm in August 1995 , when the force contributed 3 , 100 troops to the offensive . During the war , the special police units lost 179 troops killed , 790 wounded and 14 missing . Establishment . In 1990 , following the electoral defeat of the government of the Socialist Republic of Croatia , ethnic tensions between Croats and Croatian Serbs worsened . The Yugoslav People ' s Army ( – JNA ) believed Croatia would use the Croatian Territorial Defence Force ' s ( – TO ) equipment to build its own army and confront the JNA itself . In order to minimize the expected resistance , the JNA confiscated the TO weapons . On 17 August , the tensions escalated into an open revolt of the Croatian Serbs , centred on the predominantly Serb - populated areas in Croatia — the Dalmatian hinterland around Knin , and various parts of the Lika , Kordun , Banovina and Slavonia regions . In the beginning of 1991 , Croatia had no regular army . In an effort to bolster its defence , Croatia doubled its police personnel to about 20 , 000 . The most effective part of the force was the 3 , 000 - strong special police deployed in twelve battalions adopting special forces military organisation . The first special police unit established in the 1990s was the Lučko Anti - Terrorist Unit ( ATU ) . Its ranks were largely filled through the selection of police officers trained in Zagreb in 1990 and a small number of personnel drawn from a special forces unit of the Ministry of the Interior in existence before the 1990s . The first commanding officer of the Lučko ATU was Marko Lukić . The special police were visually distinguished from the rest of the police by the gradual introduction of a distinct type of green uniform and a shoulder sleeve insignia , worn on the right sleeve , the design of which was inspired by the US Army Special Forces insignia . The Croatian special police shoulder sleeve insignia is officially referred to as Sword and Lightning ( " Mač i munja " ) . In late 1991 , the Ministry of the Interior established the Special Police Department to facilitate efficient command and control of the special police . In 1994 , the department was reorganised into the Special Police Sector of the ministry due to the expanding scope of its operations , including planning and oversight of training processes . The Joint Special Police Force framework was set up by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Croatia to integrate the special police into military operations . In major offensives , such as Operation Storm , when the force fielded 3 , 100 troops , the special police was directly subordinated to the General Staff of the Armed Forces . Fielded units . On 17 August 1990 , the Special Police Airborne Unit , which had been etablished in 1968 and was the only combat capable unit of the Croatian military , was deployed to quell a Croatian Serb insurrection in and around Knin using three helicopters . En route , two Yugoslav Air Force fighters intercepted the helicopters and forced them to land in Ogulin . The day is now considered to be the date when the first unit of the Croatian special police was founded . Following the incident , additional special police units were set up , the bulk of which were formed between September 1990 and September 1991 . The special police subsequently took part in all military operations in the Croatian War of Independence , sustaining losses of 179 troops killed , 790 wounded and 14 missing . Personnel of all the units directly subordinated to the Ministry of the Interior was transferred to the Croatian National Guard ( " Zbor narodne garde " – ZNG ) by 15 May 1991 , when four infantry brigades were established to replace the special police units disbanded in the process . A part of the force was transferred to the Zrinski Battalion — the first special forces unit of the ZNG established around former French Foreign Legion personnel on 18 May . The Airborne Unit , the Lučko ATU and the regionally organised units remained active throughtout the war . Regionally organised units . In November 1991 , the Ministry of the Interior redefined the organisation of the special police force , retaining few units under direct control of the ministry and assigning others to county police administrations . The move was devised in response to the advance of the JNA . The scheme included the establishment of an SPU in each of the 20 county police administrations . At the time , there were up to 19 such SPUs . Under the scheme , the Karlovac , Gospić , Osijek , Slavonski Brod and Zagreb SPUs were planned to have 180 troops each . The Rijeka , Sisak , Bjelovar and Šibenik SPUs were scheduled to comprise 150 troops each , while the Split , Zadar , Kutina , Vinkovci , Županja and Vukovar SPUs were planned as 120 - strong units . The smallest , 100 - strong units were to be based in Pula , Varaždin , Zabok and Dubrovnik . Overall , the scheme called for 2 , 620 active special police troops in the regionally organised units alone , and defined that each of the units should have a matching number of reserve troops . No additional SPUs were set up in 1992 , regardless of discrepancies between the November 1991 reorganisation scheme and the actual order of battle of the special police . Two additional SPUs were set up and assigned to the Koprivnica - Križevci and Požega - Slavonia police administrations in 1993 . Following a reorganisation of the force carried out in 2001 , the regionally based units were amalgamated into four units — Zagreb , Split , Rijeka and Osijek . At the same time , the special police was reduced to 300 personnel .