Polog front

The Polog Front (Macedonian: Полог фронт, Albanian: Fronti i Pollogut) was a series of battles fought between the NLA and the Macedonian security forces in the Polog Valley, during the 2001 Insurgency in Macedonia.

Polog front
Part of the 2001 insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia
NATO troops in the hills above Tetovo
Date 22 January–13 August 2001 Location Polog Valley, Macedonia Result Ohrid Agreement Peace brokered by NATO NLA captures the villages around Tetovo NLA captures the Drenovec district in the city of Tetovo but not the full city
Belligerents
National Liberation Army Albanian National Army	Macedonia NATO Ukraine
Commanders and leaders
Ali Ahmeti Rahim Beqiri Samidin Xhezairi Gëzim Ostreni Hamdi Ndrecaj	Boris Trajkovski Ljubčo Georgievski Pande Petrovski Ljube Boškoski George Robertson Guido Venturoni
Strength
Unknown	30,000 soldiers and policemen T-55 tanks NATO 300 soldiers unknown amount of pilots and technicians
Casualties and losses
2 killed 8 wounded	66 soldiers and policemen killed 52 wounded 1 armoured vehicle destroyed 1 BTR captured 1 truck destroyed 1 Mi-17 helicopter crashed
25+ civilians killed 20+ civilians kidnapped

Background

After the Unrest in Gostivar and Tetovo (1997) in the fall of 1999, a group called the National Liberation Army or the NLA was founded by a former KLA Commander called Ali Ahmeti. On January 22, 2001, the NLA decided to launch an attack in the town of Tearce, which would be called the Tearce attack, and this attack started the 2001 insurgency in Macedonia and along with it the Polog front.

Battle

Beginning of the war

On 22 January 2001, about 100 NLA fighters entered Tearce, Macedonia. Clashes had started around Tearce, after the attack, NLA captured Tearce. The Tearce attack was the first incident in which major fighting took place. Then the National Liberation Army launched more attacks, which started the Battle of Tetovo, where 1 NLA fighter was killed and 34 Macedonian soldiers died. The NLA had an advantage in the hills above Tetovo. After the battle of Tetovo, the Macedonian army launched an offensive to regain all NLA-held territory in Tetovo. Macedonian forces routed Albanian rebels and regained control over all of Tetovo-held NLA territory at that time. Then the NLA decided to launch an ambush in the village of Lisec, which would be called the Lisec ambush. In this ambush, NLA failed, which led to 1 jeep being destroyed and 8 Macedonian soldiers wounded. After this failure, NLA decided to launch another ambush in the village of Gajre, which would be called the Gajre ambush. In this ambush, NLA killed 5 Macedonian soldiers and did not lose any of its fighters, which was a success. In total, 39 Macedonian soldiers died in the Polog region. During the Skopje Raid, which killed 5 NLA rebels and the famous commander Lefter Koxhaj, the NLA rebels decided to launch an ambush to get revenge for Commander Teli, which would be known as the Karpalak Ambush. This was successful and killed 10 Macedonian soldiers, and NLA did not suffer any losses, which brought the casualties to 49 Macedonian soldiers killed in total. Then there was an incident in Ljuboten, also known as the Ljuboten incident, which led to the death of 8 Macedonian soldiers and 1 NLA fighter, making the casualties 57 Macedonian soldiers dead and 2 NLA fighters dead in total. Then NLA launched another ambush in the village of Vejce, which is also known as the Vejce Ambush, which led to the death of 8 Macedonian soldiers, bringing the total to 66 Macedonian soldiers dead in the whole Polog Front.

References

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