Croat–Bosniak War
| Croat–Bosniak War | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Bosnian War | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia Croatia
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 Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mujahideen(El Mudžahid) |
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Franjo Tuđman Gojko Šušak Janko Bobetko Mate Boban Milivoj Petković Slobodan Praljak Ante Roso Valentin Ćorić
|
Alija Izetbegović Sefer Halilović Rasim Delić Enver Hadžihasanović Arif Pašalić Mehmed Alagić Blaž Kraljević † Sakib Mahmuljin(commander of El Mudžahid forces) |
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| Strength | |||||||||
| 40,000–50,000 (1993) | 100,000–120,000 (1993) | ||||||||
The Croat–Bosniak War was a conflict between the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the self-proclaimed Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia, supported by Croatia, that lasted from 18 October 1992 to 23 February 1994. It is often referred to as a "war within a war" because it was part of the larger Bosnian War. In the beginning, Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) and Croats fought in an alliance against the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS), but by the end of 1992 tensions between them increased. The first armed incidents occurred in October 1992 in central Bosnia between local Croat and Bosniak forces. Their military alliance held out until early 1993 when their cooperation fell apart and the two former allies engaged in open conflict.
The Croat–Bosniak War escalated in central Bosnia and soon spread to Herzegovina, with most of the fighting taking place in those two regions. The Bosniaks were organized in the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH), and Croats in the Croatian Defence Council (HVO). The war generally consisted of sporadic conflicts with numerous ceasefires signed in the course of it. However, it was not an all-out war between the Bosniaks and Croats and they remained allied in other regions. Several peace plans were proposed by the international community during the war, but each of them failed. On 23 February 1994 a ceasefire was reached and an agreement ending the hostilities was signed in Washington on 18 March 1994, by which time the HVO had lost half of its controlled territory. The agreement led to the establishment of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and joint operations against the Serb forces which helped alter the military balance and bring the Bosnian War to an end.
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