Battle of Kupres (1992)

Battle of Kupres
Part of the Bosnian War
Kupres Tomislavgrad Livno Bugojno Knin Šuica Kupres and nearby towns on the map of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Date 3–11 April 1992 Location Southwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina Result Yugoslav People's Army victory Territorial changes The JNA and VRS successfully capture the Kupres plateau
Belligerents
Yugoslav People's Army Republika Srpska	Herzeg-Bosnia  Croatia
Commanders and leaders
Momir Talić Ratko Mladić Stanislav Galić Slavko Lisica	Milivoj Petković Janko Bobetko
Units involved
Yugoslav People's Army 30th Partisan Division 13th Partisan Brigade 19th Partisan Brigade 9th Armoured Battalion 11th Motorised Brigade 5th Corps Volunteer Battalion 5th Mixed Artillery Regiment 5th Light AAD Regiment	Croatian Defence Council Kupres Battalion Tomislavgrad TO Posušje TO Croatian Army Zrinski Battalion 204th Brigade 126th Infantry Brigade Croatian Defence Forces
Strength
20,000	6,000
Casualties and losses
85 killed 154 captured	160–177 killed 23 captured
38 civilians killed

The Battle of Kupres (Serbo-Croatian: Bitka za Kupres / Битка за Купрес) was a battle of the Bosnian War, fought between the Bosnian Croat Territorial Defence Force (Teritorijalna obrana – TO) supported by the Croatian Army (Hrvatska vojska – HV) troops on one side and the Yugoslav People's Army (Jugoslovenska narodna armija – JNA), augmented by the Bosnian Serb TO on the other at the Kupres Plateau, on 3–11 April 1992. During the fighting on 8 April, the Bosnian Croat TO was reorganised as the Croatian Defence Council (Hrvatsko vijeće obrane – HVO). The objective of the battle was to control the strategic Kupres Plateau, a major supply route.

The opposing sides began bringing in reinforcements to the Kupres Plateau on 5 March to strengthen positions held around individual settlements populated by different ethnic groups, communications between those positions, and roads leading away from the plateau to the north and south. Different parts of the town of Kupres were controlled by the opposing forces, while the adjacent territory surrounding the town was controlled by the Bosnian Croat TO. In turn, that territory was surrounded by Bosnian Serb TO-held territory. By the end of the month, the bulk of the civilians living in the area were evacuated. On 2 April, negotiations to defuse the situation failed while the reinforcements continued to arrive. The battle commenced the next day. In Kupres itself, the Bosnian Croat TO achieved minor territorial gains on 4–5 April, before the JNA managed to advance to the outskirts of the town the next day. The JNA entered Kupres in the afternoon of 7 April and in the next few days, it successfully drove the Croatian forces from the plateau. The breakthrough came about after the infantry originally deployed to the battle was reinforced by an armoured battalion deployed from Knin.

Croatian forces were hampered by an inadequate command structure, poor coordination and lack heavy weapons. The battle resulted in more than 200 combat deaths, and established lines of control which would remain unchanged until 1994, when the plateau was recaptured by the HVO. In 2012, Republika Srpska authorities charged seven Croats with war crimes committed at the plateau against civilians and prisoners of war. The next year, Croatian authorities charged 21 former JNA members with war crimes against HVO prisoners captured at the Kupres Plateau.