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Home  /  Did you know ... ?  /  that the Kosovo Air Campaign of 1999 was not NATO's first air campaign of attacks against ground targets?

that the Kosovo Air Campaign of 1999 was not NATO's first air campaign of attacks against ground targets?


When the situation in Bosnia continued to deteriorate due to Bosnian Serb attacks on areas that the United Nations had declared to be "Safe Areas”, NATO expanded its Operation DENY FLIGHT over the skies of Bosnia - which had previously involved just air patrols to enforce the UN's No-Fly Zone - to include Close Air Support to protect UN peacekeeping forces and also air strikes in support of UN resolutions. Such limited attacks began in 1994 and continued into 1995.
 
After the Bosnian Serbs overran the Srebrenica Safe Area, killing a large number of the male inhabitants afterward, and then began to threaten two additional UN-declared Safe Areas, NATO carried out Operation DEADEYE on 30-31 August 1995 to suppress Bosnian Serb air defences. During the pause that followed, the Bosnian Serbs continued to refuse to comply with the demands of the international community, so NATO aircraft then carried out Operation DELIBERATE FORCE from 5-14 September 1995, attacking Bosnian Serb military targets such as command & control facilities and ammunition storage sites to force them to withdraw their heavy weapons from the Sarajevo area.
 
NATO's forceful action contributed to the Bosnian Serbs' decision to enter into peace negotiations, and in November 1995 the warring factions initialled the Dayton Peace Accords ending the fighting in Bosnia.

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