Battle of Junik 1998
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 16 August 1998 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1998 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | Post-1945 (1946 onwards) | derived from year |
| Location | Kosovo | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Kosovo War | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 42.4833, 20.2833 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Junik (Albanian: Beteja e Junikut; Serbian: Битка за Јуник, Bitka za Junik) was fought during the Kosovo War between the ethnic Albanian paramilitary organization known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and the security forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia over the town of Junik in western Kosovo.
Junik was occupied by the KLA early in the war and became a centre of arms smuggling from northern Albania due to its strategic location. The town was besieged by the Yugoslav Army (VJ) and Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) on 28 July 1998, and was the site of intense clashes for nearly three weeks afterwards. On 16 August, it was stormed by the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit, the special operations component of the MUP, forcing the remaining KLA fighters to flee into the surrounding hills and forests.
Four MUP personnel and two VJ soldiers were killed in the battle, according to contemporary reports. The KLA suffered 13 fatalities. In addition, there were eight Kosovo Albanian civilian fatalities. An additional 12,000 Kosovo Albanian civilians were displaced. After Junik's fall, the United States expressed concern that government forces had planted landmines around the town.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Junik (revision 1381017507), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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