On Good Friday 1999. The “Hell of Koshare” begun…

That Friday (Orthodox “Good Friday”), on April 9th. 1999, the Battle of Mountain Koshare commenced.
Due to the fact, that Serbian (officially Yugoslav Army) forces were heavily outnumbered by the enemy, they suffered the losses of 60 killed, and over 150 wounded soldiers… Among killed YA soldiers was the Russian volunteer Bulah Glebovich. The battle was remembered as “The Hell of Koshare”…

09.04.2014. By  (Dimitrije Markovic for FB page “Say No to EU”)
FBR translation & comments- M. Novakovic

The Koshare Battle raged between April 9th to June 10th 1999. At that time Serbian forces, that were part of regular Yugoslavian army, faced at least three times stronger enemy, combined of NATO troops, regular Albanian army, and Kosovo Albanian terrorists, disguised as KLA (“Kosovo liberation army”).

As the aggressor positions were at higher (elevation) ground in relation to the positions of Yugoslav Army, and the “Koshare” Yugoslav border post was isolated and hard to defend, the enemy chose this location for a major attack point.

The NATO goal was to defeat outnumbered YA troops at “Koshare crossing”, and to continue from there with a land invasion, inside Serbian province “Kosovo & Metohija”.

Their plan was to seize the city of Djakovica, and to cut off YA communication lines between Djakovica and Prizren. The major objective was to occupy entire Serbian province and force YA to militarily engage the enemy in open, which would enable NATO air power to go for “easy kill”. Previously NATO had very little success in bombing well camouflaged YA forces, from high altitude.

On Good Friday, April 9th. 1999. at 03:00 hours, the massive artillery barrage from Albanian side of the border begun, targeting the Koshare crossing. This attack against Yugoslav army “border trenches” was launched by the regular army of Republic of Albania. Albanian army was reinforced by NATO special forces, namely French Foreign legion, British SAS, and German and Italian military special forces (scouts and target locators for Albanian artillery and NATO air force). Albanians were attacking from three directions. The first was toward the “Rasha peak”, the second straight against the Koshare border post, and the third one targeting the peak “Maja Glava”.

During the artillery barrage, some 1,500 KLA fighters were able to move undetected to the border line. At that time there was only 200 soldiers of Yugoslav Army. The bloody battle lasted whole day with heavy losses on both sides, but the number of killed enemy forces was much greater.

“These were horrible images, the land and skies were engulfed in the fire. The cries from the wounded and dying were heard all over the place. The artillery projectiles had cut in half the big tress, some thick one meter in diameter, but we held the line of defense.” – Recalls Lt. Colonel Ljubinko Djurkovic.

The battle lasted whole night, until the dawn next day. With the help of Albanian artillery, KLA was able to seize the peak “Maja Glava”. They continued to bomb Koshare border post, forcing the YA soldiers to retreat from the border post building, the same afternoon. In the evening, around 19:00 hours, KLA fighters accompanied by American CNN and British BBC TV crews, entered the abandoned and ruined border post building, celebrating “the big victory”…

Meanwhile the Yugoslav army soldiers just retreated to the auxiliary line of defense, above (the higher altitude) the Koshare border post, which was much easier to defend.

The next day YA was reinforced by the fresh troops, and artillery support. Among the reinforcement were even the fathers of young YA conscripts, who came, if necessary, to die along their sons.

“My battalion was numbering some one thousand soldiers, as the part of 125th armored brigade. We were reinforced by a number commandos from the elite 63rd parachute brigade, from city of Nis, as well with many volunteer fighters. We had two companies of the foreign volunteer fighters. The first one was made of 40 Russian Cossacks, and the second had some 20 Scandinavian volunteers. We all were prepared- rather to die, instead to allow one inch of Serbian land to be conquered by the enemy boots. “- Remembers Lt. Colonel Ljubinko Djurkovic.

According to Lt. Col. Djurkovic, the battles in that regions were raging all the time, until the war was officially over in June 1999, when Yugoslavian leadership and NATO aggressors, have signed so called “Kumanovo agreement” (which provided for orderly withdraw of Yugoslavian forces and military hardware from Kosovo, under UN resolution 1244, which still recognizes Kosovo as a part of the Serbian state).

The battle that was taking place in the tranches along Yugoslavian-Albanian border, stretching over 15 kilometers in diameter, was so horrific , that was remembered among Serbian soldiers as “THE HELL OF KOSHARE”.

For two months the enemy was unsuccessfully trying every single day to break through Serbian defensive lines. The attacks culminated on first day April 9th, then on April 12th, and May 6th , and were preceded by more than 10 hours of bombing by NATO air force, each time.

“Among our regular intelligence reports about the enemy movements and intentions, we were able as well to penetrate NATO HQ, and obtain from our agent their list of intended targets. Afterward we staged the fake military positions, using the makeshift models. They needed sometime up to two days to figure that out, meanwhile NATO was wasting the tons of bombs and missiles on fake targets.”- Lt. Col. Djurkovic

As a result this heroic battle, remembered among Serbian soldiers as “The Hell of Koshare”, the NATO plans for land invasion have completely failed. The official figure of the NATO, Albanian army and KLA terrorists losses, was around 150 killed (even the real number of recovered bodies was much higher), more than 300 wounded(?), and five destroyed tanks, belonging to the regular army of the Republic of Albania…

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I ask You Lord remember in the Kingdom of Thy, all the Orthodox soldiers killed on the battlefield, because they fell for the freedom of their Serbian land… And receive them in your celestial land as sacrificed Martyrs covered in own blood, and who died for Thy Holy Church, and their Fatherland… To be blessed by Your kindness...
Amen.