April 5, 1992 – February 29, 1996 · Central Bosnia Theater
April 5, 1992 – February 29, 1996
Beginning April 5, 1992, Bosnian Serb forces under General Ratko Mladić ringed Sarajevo with artillery and sniper positions in the surrounding hills, beginning the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare — 1,425 days. An estimated 13,952 people were killed, including 5,434 civilians. Residents faced daily sniper fire on the 800-meter 'Sniper Alley,' artillery barrages targeting markets and breadlines, and years of severe shortages of food, water, electricity, and medicine during Balkan winters. The city survived through a UN airlift — the longest humanitarian airlift in history — and a tunnel dug under the airport that kept a lifeline open to the outside world. NATO air strikes following the February 1994 Markale marketplace massacre finally forced a partial withdrawal of heavy weapons.
Commanders