War in Kosovo 1998-1999

The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that began on 28 February 1998, following the Yugoslav attack on the villages of Likoshan and Qirez in Drenica, Kosovo, until 11 June 1999.

The war was fought between the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (at the time, the Confederation of Serbia and Montenegro) and the Kosovo Liberation Army, with NATO air assistance (from 24 March 1999) and ground support from the Albanian Army.

In this war 800,000 Albanians were expelled from their territories, 15,000 were killed, 2,400 of whom were ULAK fighters and the rest were civilians. About 5,000 people perished during the war, the fate of most of them fading by 2007, but the number of unexplained cases remains high.

The liberation of Kosovo was aided by the UCC with the help of NATO, and ground support by the Albanian Army. On March 23, 1999 at 11:17 pm, NATO Secretary General Javier Solana announced that he had commissioned the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, US Army General Wesley Clark, to "begin air operations in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia".

NATO had begun a bombing campaign against Yugoslavia on March 24 at 8pm. In over ten weeks of conflict, NATO aircraft flew over 38,000 combat missions, and with the exception of Greece, all NATO members were involved.

The Rambouillet Conference was held during January-March 1999.

The massive attack on Jashari's house had led to the massacre of 60 Albanians, mostly of the Adem Jashari family, 18 of whom were women and 10 children. On 15 January 1999 the Recak Massacre took place, where 45 Albanian farmers were besieged, then taken to a hill and massacred. The massacre was punished by Western nations and the United Nations Security Council and later became the basis of one of the war crimes charges against Milosevic and his top officials.

On June 12, the mission led by the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) had begun to enter Kosovo, with its only mission being peacekeeping.