Atif Dudakovic | |
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Born |
Orahova, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia |
2 December 1953
Allegiance | 1976–1992 Yugoslavia (Yugoslav People's Army) 1992–? Bosnia and Herzegovina |
Service/branch | Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina |
Rank | Lieutenant General |
Commands held | Commander of the 5th Corps |
Battles/wars |
Croatian War of Independence (Battle of Šibenik) Bosnian War (Siege of Bihać, Operation Tiger, Operation Sana) |
Atif Dudaković (born 2 December 1953) is a former general in the Bosnian army. During the Bosnian War, Dudaković was in command of the Bihać enclave, which was surrounded and besieged from 1991 to 1995, commanding the 5th Corps. After the war he became the general commander of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina army.
Dudaković was born in the village of Orahova near Bosanska Gradiška. He served in the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), teaching at an artillery school in Zadar and a military academy in Belgrade.
In 1991, at the beginning of the Croatian War of Independence, he served as the artillery superintendent of the 9th Corps of the JNA with headquarters in Knin, and was directly subordinated to the Serb General Ratko Mladić. At this point he left the federal army.
After the outbreak of the war in Bosnia, Dudaković joined the newly established Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH). Eventually he became commander of the 5th Corps, defending Bihać. The situation there was difficult as Bihać was surrounded on all sides by enemies of the ARBiH: by the Army of Republika Srpska; by Republic of Serb Krajina; and by forces of the Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia, the renegade Bosniak forces of Fikret Abdić. The 5th Corps successfully defended the enclave and in 1995 broke out from the encirclement and captured the towns of Bosanski Petrovac, Bosanska Krupa, Ključ, Sanski Most and were on the verge of entering Prijedor and Banja Luka before the United States forced an end to the war.