| Attack on Prekaz | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Kosovo War | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Serbian police - SAJ (Special Anti-terrorist Unit) | KLA | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Goran Radosavljević | Adem Jashari † Hamëz Jashari † |
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| Strength | |||||||
| ~100 policemen | 28 KLA fighters | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 6 killed 3 wounded[2] |
64 members of the Jashari family Killed |
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The Attack on Prekaz (also known as the Prekaz Massacre[3][4][5]) was an operation led by the Serbian police Anti-Terrorism Unit. Launched on March 5, 1998, the Attack was unsuccesful attempt on the part of the Yugoslavs to capture Kosovo Liberation Army leader Adem Jashari and his brother, Hamëz. During the operation, both Jasharis were killed, along with more than 60 other family members, including women and children.[6]
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On December 30, 1991, when Adem Jashari and Hamëz Jashari were at home in Prekaz, Kosovo, Yugoslav Police-Officers and paramilitaries surrounded them in an unsuccessful attempt to capture or kill them. The two escaped the siege and later participated in several actions against the Yugoslav Army and police.[2]
Later, when the Kosovo War began, Adem and Hamëz were members of the Kosovo Liberation Army that fought the Yugoslav establishment in an attempt to gain independence from Yugoslavia. On February 28, 1998, a group of insurgents led by Adem Jashari attacked a Yugoslav Police patrol, killing four policemen and injuring two. In the attack, sixteen KLA members were killed, however.[2]
At dawn, on March 5, 1998, the KLA launched another attack on a police patrol in Donje Prekaze.[7] After the second attack, the police prepared a brutal response for the Jasharis. They started hunting local KLA insurgents who were forced to retreat to Jashari's compound in the same village.[2]
Yugoslav policemen surrounded the group and invited them to surrender, while urging all other persons to clear the premises. The police gave them two hours to comply. Within the given deadline, dozens of civilians complied with the order and dispersed in safety from the stronghold.[2]
After the two-hour deadline had expired, Jashari, his brother and most of his family-members, however still refused to comply and remained inside the compound. After a tense verbal stand-off, Jashari's gang responded by firing on the police using automatic weapons as well as mortars, hand grenades and snipers, killing two and injuring three policemen.[2]
In the ensuing violence, the Yugoslav police killed more than sixty people, including the Jashari brothers.
In an act of revenge, Albanian extremists killed 6 Serbian teenagers in the Panda Bar Massacre and killed numerous ethnic-Serb villagers throughout Kosovo and mutilated their remains. Eventually, events spiralled out of the control and the Kosovo War ensued.