Battle of Kusonje

Battle of Kusonje
Part of the Croatian War of Independence
Members of the Croatian Army and Police in the part of Pakrac called Pilana during an attempt to extract comrades from an ambush in Kusonje.
Date 8–9 September 1991 Location Kusonje, Croatia Result SAO Western Slavonia victory
Belligerents
Croatia	SAO Western Slavonia Support by: Yugoslavia
Commanders and leaders
Stjepan Ivanić †	Nikola Uzelac
Units involved
Company "A" 1st Battalion of the 105th Brigade[1] Omega SPU	Yugoslav People's Army SAO Krajina Infantry Battalion
Casualties and losses
All 20 soldiers killed (including 7 executed after the battle)	Dozens dead and wounded

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.