Draft:Attacks on Lučane

the Attacks on Lučane were series of fighting between JSO and UÇPMB during Insurgency in Preševo Valley.Yugoslav forces started an offensive on the village since it was an strategic point,being close to Bujanovac,one of the main strongholds of the UÇPMB,Yugoslav forces seeing this,sent their most elite organization,JSO to conduct an offensive against the militiants in the village,after some fighting,the unit successfully forced the militiants to withdraw from Lučane,thus gaining an strategic place for further fighting in the area.

Battle of Lučane
Part of the Insurgency in the Preševo Valley
Date 29 November 2000 Location Lučane, Preševo Valley, FR Yugoslavia Result JSO Victory UÇPMB withdraws from Lučane
Belligerents
FR Yugoslavia	UCBMP
Commanders and leaders
Milorad Ulemek	Ridvan Qazimi
Units involved
Yugoslav Armed Forces JSO	Unknown
Strength
100-500	100-300

The Attacks

Members of the JSO, who are at the final checkpoint in the Bujanovac village of Lučane, on the Bujanovac - Gnjilane road, told a Srna agency reporter on Wednesday that in recent days "they did not leave their positions and left Lucane to members of the so-called Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedje and Bujanovac". The commander of this unit claims that members of the JSO, since the first day of the incursion of extremists from the territory of Kosovo into the demilitarized zone, have been in their positions, which are twenty meters from the agreed five kilometers of the separation zone. The police expect that the coming night could be restless, because "there are well-founded suspicions, reported by Albanian natives, that extremists from the ranks of the UÇPMB will start a series of provocations in order to provoke the movements of members of the JSO in the direction of the administrative border". The members of the JSO point out that during the night several minor incidents were recorded in this area, since the members of the so-called JSO fired from automatic weapons from the surrounding hills from the direction of the administrative border. According to the same source, the only road to Kosmet from this area with traffic is Bujanovac-Lučane-Končulj-Gnjilane, while all side roads through the surrounding Albanian villages are mined. Members of the JSO claim that there were several strong detonations on the local road Lucane-administrative border-Kosovska Kamenica, because, probably, anti-tank mines were activated. In the village of Lučane, not a single house was set on fire, nor were there visible signs of conflict on any building. The Reuters Television team from the scene reported that the Serbian special units, after last week's withdrawal due to the death of four police officers, regained control over the village of Lučane. According to the same source, JSO armed with machine guns encountered no resistance as they entered Lucane, but several shots and explosions were heard in the distance. A policeman who participated in the operation in the village told Reuters that the special units did not enter the buffer zone, which they are prohibited from entering according to the Kumanovo Agreement. "The police did not enter the buffer zone. We regained control without any problems," he said, reports Srna. Yugoslav troops and the other side both said that village of Lučane has fallen into the hands of the JSO after the offensive was made, reports say Ethnic Albanians had fled the village thinking that Serbian Forces might attack them too.

References

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• Battles of the Insurgency in the Preševo Valley