Operation Tiger was a military action carried out simultaneously with Operation Storm in the summer of 1995, by the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ABiH) against the Bosnian autonomous zone of the Republic of Western Bosnia, its leader Fikret Abdić and his Serbian backers the Army of the Republic of Serbian Krajina (VSK), and the Army of the Republika Srpska (VRS). The battle was a huge success for the beleaguered ABiH, which was able to rout Abdić's forces and regain the territory lost to the Republic of Western Bosnia.

Background

The early 1990s saw the existence of a western "Muslim" enclave held by Bosnian government forces under the leadership of the legendary ABiH commander, Atif Dudaković. The region was fortunate that even having some Croatian population in southwest, it was able to avoid internecine fighting between the once-allied Croatian Defence Council (HVO) forces and government Bosnian ABiH forces that plagued central Bosnia. This, unfortunately, was about the only thing the western enclave had in its favour.

In addition to being completely surrounded by Serbian forces with the Croatian Republic of Serbian Krajina (VSK) to the west and the Bosnian Republika Srpska (VRS) to the east, the Western enclave forces had to deal with the Republic of Western Bosnia and its leader Fikret Abdić.

Republic of Western Bosnia

The Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia (Bosnian, Croatian or Serbian: Autonomna Pokrajina Zapadna Bosna, Аутономна Покрајина Западна Босна) was a de facto independent entity that existed in the Western enclave of present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1993 and 1995. The capital city of Western Bosnia was Velika Kladuša (located in the territory of present-day Una-Sana Canton). In 1993 Fikret Abdić, once the president of the Agrokomerc company, decided to carve out a little state for himself and succeeded in recruiting enough followers to make his dream a reality. Abdić was able to hold power over his mini-state by using cultlike propaganda techniques over his followers and Serbian arms and military training. Local residents of Velika Kladusa were reported as treating Abdić "like a god" and "were ready to do whatever he said."

5th Corps

Even though it was totally surrounded by Serbian forces and constantly harassed by Abdić's followers, the western enclave protected by the 5th Corps of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (five infantry brigades strong) was able to hold its own and achieve some success partly thanks to the leadership of Atif Dudaković. By the summer of 1994, Dudaković had developed a plan in hopes of eliminating the autonomist Republic of Western Bosnia.

Secret plan

The trap is laid

The plan was hatched by Dudaković and the commander of the 5th Corps 502nd Brigade, Hamdo Abdić (no relation to Fikret Abdić). In total secrecy, Hamdo approached Fikret Abdić as a dissatisfied military commander willing to sell his services and treachery to Fikret Abdić for the right price. Fikret Abdić was suspicious but decided to take the risk and gave Hamdo a large sum of money, promising that if fighting broke out he would support Hamdo's coup attempt. Hamdo promptly informed Dudaković, who ordered that all aid workers be confined to quarters and that large fires be started using piles of tires to create the illusion of burning buildings. Then Dudaković told his dumbfounded troops to fire in the air as if they were fighting an invisible enemy.

The bait is taken

Fikret Abdić and his Serbian backers, watching from a distance, saw the smoke and heard the gunfire while listening to rattled aid workers yelling over their radio channels for extraction. Assuming they were seeing a military coup in progress, they promptly sent in their best weapons, troops and officers to support Hamdo Abdić.

The trap is sprung

Fikret Abdić had been lulled into a trap, and Dudaković and the still loyal 5th corps were able to force the swift surrender of his forces and seize badly-needed weapons. The Serbian VRS and VSK turned out Fikret Abdić in a rage, and what was left of his demoralized forces had to face an attack by Dudaković's strengthened 5th corps. They were quickly routed.

Aftermath

The Republic of Western Bosnia was soon dissolved, its forces defeated and its territory was incorporated into the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (present day Una-Sana Canton). Fikret Abdić was arrested and after the war he was convicted for acts of war crimes against civilian Bosniaks that stayed loyal to the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The government of Bosnia-Herzegovina charged him with the deaths of 121 civilians and three POWs, and the wounding of 400 civilians in the Bihać region. Croatia, where he had taken refuge, refused to extradite him, but he was put on trial there. In 2002 he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for war crimes committed in the area of the "Bihać pocket”. In 2005 the Croatian Supreme Court reduced the sentence to 15 years.

The Serb Krajina Republic or (RSK) in Croatia was destroyed when the Croatian Ground Army (HV), with assistance from the 5th Bosnian Corps, routed the RSK army in Operation Storm, of which Operation Tiger was a part. This enabled major counterattacks by both Croatian and Bosnian forces in Western Bosnia, resulting in Croatian Operation Mistral and Bosnian Operation Sana. Further offensives were ended by the signing of the Dayton Agreement, largely thanks to pressure from those operations and the NATO bombardment of Bosnian Serbs.

The Serbian population of those areas of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina fled east, to Banja Luka and as far as Vojvodina and Kosovo. The United Nations estimated there were 150,000-200,000 refugees from Croatia alone. The number of refugees from western Bosnia is unknown.

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