Atif Dudaković

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Atif Dudaković (Born December 2, 1953 in Bosanska Dubica, Bosnia and Herzegovina) is a former general in the Bosnian army, commanding the army's 5th Corps before becoming the general commander of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina army.

Dudaković served in the Yugoslav People's Army, teaching in at an artillery school in Zadar and a military academy in Belgrade. After outbreak of the war in Bosnia, he joined the newly established Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Eventually he became the commander of the 5th corps in Bihać.

The situation in Bihać was difficult because Bihać was surrounded on all sides by the VRS (Bosnian Serbs) RSK (Krajina Serbs) and forces loyal to Fikret Abdić. The 5th Corps successfully defended the enclave and in 1995 broke out from the encirclement and liberated the towns of Bosanski Petrovac, Bosanska Krupa, Ključ, Sanski Most and were on the verge of entering Prijedor and Banja Luka before the United States forced an end to the war.

After the war he continued to serve in the army and held several high ranking positions. Today he is retired. ^[1] ^[2]

It is claimed that on one occasion, in front of cameras, Dudaković ^[3] ^[4] ordered to his soldiers to burn Serbian villages. His supporters claim, however, that the only order that Dudakovic was giving to his soldiers was "pali", a Bosnian word for "fire", as in "firing a canon".