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|caption= Kupres and nearby towns on the map of Bosnia and Herzegovina |partof= the Bosnian War |date=3–11 April 1992 |place= Southwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina |result= Yugoslav People's Army victory |combatant1= Yugoslav People's Army Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina |combatant2= * Croatian Defence Council |commander1= Momir Talić Ratko Mladić Stanislav Galić Slavko Lisica |commander2= Milivoj Petković Janko Bobetko |units1=30th Partisan Division *13th Partisan Brigade *19th Partisan Brigade 9th Armoured Battalion 11th Motorised Brigade 5th Corps Volunteer Battalion 5th Mixed Artillery Regiment 5th Light AAD Regiment |units2=Kupres Battalion Tomislavgrad TO Posušje TO Zrinski Battalion 204th Brigade 126th Infantry Brigade |strength1= unknown |strength2= unknown |casualties1= 85 killed 154 captured |casualties2= 160–177 killed 23 captured |casualties3=38 civilians killed }} The Battle of Kupres (Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian: ''Bitka za Kupres'') was a battle of the Bosnian War, fought between the Bosnian Croat Territorial Defence Force (''Teritorijalna obrana'' – TO) supported by the Croatian Army (''Hrvatska vojska'' – HV) troops on one side and the Yugoslav People's Army (''Jugoslovenska narodna armija'' – JNA), augmented by the Bosnian Serb TO on the other at the Kupres Plateau, on 3–11 April 1992. During the fighting on 8 April the Bosnian Croat TO was reorganised as the Croatian Defence Council (''Hrvatsko vijeće obrane'' – HVO). The objective of the battle was control of the strategic Kupres Plateau, controlling a major supply route. The opposing sides began bringing in reinforcements to the Kupres Plateau on 5 March to strengthen positions held around individual settlements populated by different ethnic groups, communications between those positions, and roads leading away from the plateau to the north and south. Different parts of the town of Kupres were controlled by the opposing forces, while the adjacent territory surrounding the town was controlled by the Bosnian Croat TO. In turn, that territory was surrounded by Bosnian Serb TO-held territory. By the end of the month, the bulk of the civilians living in the area were evacuated. On 2 April, negotiations to defuse the situation failed while the reinforcements continued to arrive. The battle commenced the next day. In Kupres itself, the Bosnian Croat TO achieved minor territorial gains on 4–5 April, before the JNA managed to advance to the outskirts of the town the next day. The JNA entered Kupres in the afternoon of 7 April and in the next few days, it successfully drove the Croatian forces from the plateau. The breakthrough came about after the infantry originally deployed to the battle was reinforced by an armoured battalion deployed from Knin. Croatian forces were hampered by an inadequate command structure, poor coordination and lack heavy weapons. The battle resulted in more than 200 killed on both sides, and established lines of control which would remain unchanged until 1994, when the plateau was recaptured by the HVO. In 2012, Republika Srpska authorities charged seven Croats with war crimes committed at the plateau against civilians and prisoners of war. The next year, Croatian authorities charged 21 former JNA members with war crimes against HVO prisoners captured at the Kupres Plateau. ==Background== As the Yugoslav People's Army (''Jugoslovenska narodna armija'' – JNA) withdrew from Croatia following the implementation of the Vance plan, it was reorganised into a new Bosnian Serb army. This reorganisation followed the declaration of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina on 9 January 1992, ahead of the 29 February – 1 March 1992 referendum on the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This declaration was later cited by the Bosnian Serbs as a pretext for the Bosnian War. Bosnian Serbs began fortifying the capital, Sarajevo, and other areas on 1 March. On the following day, the first fatalities of the war were recorded in Sarajevo and Doboj. On 27 March, Bosnian Serb forces bombarded Bosanski Brod with artillery, drawing a border crossing by the Croatian Army (''Hrvatska vojska'' – HV) 108th Brigade in response. Control of the Kupres area was contested by Bosnian Serbs and Croats. Before the war, the former represented the majority of the population on the Kupres Plateau, comprising a total of 51 percent of its inhabitants, while Croats accounted for 39 percent. The JNA deployed an armoured unit based in Mostar to the plateau in May 1991. The bulk of the force moved to Knin three months later, while a tactical group of the 30th Partisan Division redeployed to the general area as it withdrew from Slovenia after the Ten-Day War. In September, the Bosnian Croats established the Territorial Defence Force (''Teritorijalna obrana'' – TO) headquarters which set up armed volunteer units. By November, these units had been organised as the Kupres Battalion. The battalion consisted of five companies and an independent platoon. A Central Intelligence Agency report described the unit as a "barely organized collection of mostly local villagers and townspeople". The arming of the various forces was hampered by a UN arms embargo introduced in September 1991. In early 1992, the 30th Partisan Division was subordinated to the JNA 5th (Banja Luka) Corps and assigned Kupres as its area of responsibility (AOR). The division, likely comprising only 2,000 troops, was under the command of Colonel Stanislav Galić. As of 19 March, the 5th (Banja Luka) Corps was under command of Lieutenant General Momir Talić. In April, the Bosnian Serbs were able to deploy 200,000 troops, hundreds of tanks, armoured personnel carriers (APCs) and artillery pieces. The Bosnian Croats could field approximately 25,000 soldiers and a handful of heavy weapons, while the Bosniaks were largely unprepared for combat with nearly 100,000 troops, but small arms for less than half of their number and virtually no heavy weapons. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Kupres (1992)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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