- Title: BOSNIA/SERBIA/CROATIA: CROATIAN MILITARY CELEBRATE CAPTURE OF SERB TERRITORY
- Date: 5th August 1995
- Summary: ZAGREB, CROATIA (REUTERS TELEVISION) SLV PRESS BRIEFING BY CROATIAN MAJOR GENERAL IVAN TOLJ SV TOLJ SAYING HIS FORCES HAVE LINKED UP WITH BOSNIAN MOSLEM FORCES (CROATIAN WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATION)
- Embargoed: 20th August 1995 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: VARIOUS LOCATIONS BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA/ CROATIA/ YUGOSLAVIA
- City:
- Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina Croatia
- Topics: War / Fighting,International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVAC2BD9N564RM36EF1ZR4GM0TF4
- Story Text: Croatians put down their guns and raised their glasses to celebrate a lightning advance into rebel Serb land on Saturday (August 5) which left its "capital", Knin, in their hands and sliced the whole Serb territory in two.
On Sunday (Aug 6), the third day of Croatia's offensive, troops marched into the key northern town of Petrinja.
The Croats said Sunday also saw the capture of Obrovac, near the Adriatic coast, and Novi Licki Osik, a crossroads town deep inside south Krajina.
At Knin's capture, laughing troops laid out enormous Croatian flags in the battered and otherwise silent streets of the city, whose Serb inhabitants fled in their tens of thousands towards Serb-held territory in Bosnia.
Knin fell at noon, barely a day and a half after Croatia launched a massive onslaught on mountainous Serb-held Krajina.
Croatians cut Krajina in half by mid-afternoon and seized its second-biggest town, Benkovac, before nightfall.
On Sunday (Aug 6), the third day of Croatia's lightning offensive, troops marched into the key northern town of Petrinja.
The Croats said Sunday also saw the capture of Obrovac, near the Adriatic coast, and Novi Licki Osik, a crossroads town deep inside south Krajina which the Serbs renamed Teslingrad after Nikola Tesla, a famous Croatian Serb scientist.
In the heart of Knin, ancient capital of Croatian kings, a red, white and blue Croatian flag fluttered above the fortress.
In Benkovac, Croatian soldiers in carnival mood were filmed throwing sackloads of Yugoslav money in the air like confetti.
Benkovac was the second-biggest town in the Dalmatia region under rebel control.
Among the most elated of the Croatians hugging each other and singing unsteadily in cafes were ex-residents of Knin, thrown out by Serbs when they declared Krajina a separate republic and forced their Croatian neighbours into exile.
More than 30,000 Serbs fleeing the advance of the Croatian army in their Krajina enclave are headed towards Serb-held parts of Bosnia, a U.N. relief official said on Saturday.
The Bosnian Serb SRNA news agency said a column of refugees 20 km (12 miles) long crossed the Bosnian border into Serb-held territory. Serb authorities issued an appeal for relief supplies from aid agencies.
President Franjo Tudjman joined a euphoric street party on Saturday night in Zagreb's central square, empty only the night before amid worries the Serbs would rocket the capital.
In the Serbian capital Belgrade, hundreds of people gathered to protest against the Croatian attack on Krajina. The crowd, many of whom were from the Krajina area, heard statements from representatives of the opposition Serbian renewal movement and the Democratic party. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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