Dečani operation
| Dečani operation | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Kosovo War | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
| FR Yugoslavia | Kosovo Liberation Army | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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| Units involved | |||||||||
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Yugoslav Army Serbian police Special Operations Unit Special Anti-Terrorist Unit |
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| Strength | |||||||||
| Unknown | At least 2,000–3,000 | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
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1 policeman killed 5 wounded | 40 killed | ||||||||
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11 civilians killed, 18 missing 65,000 Albanians temporarily displaced | |||||||||
The Dečani operation, known in Serbian as the Unblocking of Dečani (Serbian: Деблокада Дечана, romanized: Deblokada Dečana, literally Deblockade of Dečani), took place in mid-1998 during the escalating Kosovo War. At that time, a portion of the Serbian population in Dečani had become completely encircled by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). In Belgrade, it became clear that broader military engagement, including the deployment of special police units and the Yugoslav Army (VJ), would be unavoidable. In June 1998, the Yugoslav Army was mobilized to break the KLA siege and relieve the besieged Serb community in Dečani. Following this operation, the use of military and police force against the KLA intensified and continued through September 1998.