Battle of Kusonje 1991
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 8 September 1991 – 9 September 1991 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1991 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
| Era | Post-1945 (1946 onwards) | derived from year |
| Location | Croatia | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Croatian War of Independence | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 45.4624, 17.2367 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Kusonje was a two-day clash fought in the village of Kusonje near the town of Pakrac on 8–9 September 1991, during the Croatian War of Independence. The battle was initiated when a platoon of the Croatian National Guard (Croatian: Zbor narodne garde – ZNG) was ambushed by Croatian Serb forces while conducting a reconnaissance patrol. The ZNG deployed reinforcements to extract the ambushed platoon, but failed to reach them. The surviving members of the platoon held out until they ran out of ammunition and surrendered only to be killed by their captors and buried in a mass grave.
The fate of the reconnaissance platoon was not known to Croatian authorities for months, adding fuel to an already volatile atmosphere in the city of Bjelovar, where the ambushed unit was originally based. This tension erupted a week later with the blockade and capture of the Yugoslav People's Army (Serbian: Jugoslovenska Narodna Armija – JNA) barracks in Bjelovar.
During a commemoration service held two years later, a landmine exploded killing three and wounding others. The Croatian authorities declared the incident to be a terrorist attack, and it contributed to Croatian government's decision to launch Operation Medak Pocket the next day.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Kusonje (revision 1380834058), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Pakrac clash 1991 · 5 km
- Operation Flash 1995 · 23 km
- Operation Swath-10 1991 · 30 km
- Battle of Dubica 1513 · 46 km
- Battle of Lijevče Field 1945 · 56 km
- Siege of Bjelovar Barracks 1991 · 58 km
Other battles of the Croatian War of Independence
- Battle of Borovo Selo 1991
- Battle of Gospić 1991
- Battle of Logorište 1991
- Battle of Osijek 1991
- Battle of Vukovar 1991
- Battle of Zadar 1991
- Battle of the Barracks 1991
- Battle of the Dalmatian Channels 1991
- Battle of Šibenik 1991
- Battles of Glina (1991) 1991
All 21 battles of the Croatian War of Independence →
Browse more: battles in Croatia · Europe · Post-1945 battles