The delegation of the President of the Republic,\u00a0 the Croatian Parliament and the Government, headed by the Speaker of the Parliament, Josip Leko, the delegation of the Croatian Armed Forces and the Directorate of the Police, headed by the Army Commander, Major General\u00a0 Mate Ostovi\u0107, the officials of Zadar and the Zadar County\u00a0 and of the Association of Croatian defenders, accompanied by General Ante Gotovina (Ret.).\u00a0 They also paid respects to the 3rd Battalion (“The Falcons”) of the war-time 4th Guard Brigade of the Croatian Army\u00a0 at its Memorial site in Zadar.
The ceremony programme featured a memorial march of the members of the war-time units and participants of the \u201cMaslenica\u201c Operation and the mass served in the Church of Saint Simon in Zadar by the archbishop of Zadar, mons \u017delimir Pulji\u0107. It was followed by a promotion of the book \u201cThe Maslenica Operation \u2013 participants’ testimonies \u201c, by Tomislav \u0160ulj and Vladimir Brnardi\u0107,\u00a0 published by the Croatian Homeland War Memorial and Documentation Centre.
The Operation was launched on 22 January 1993 at 6 a.m. (assigned the code name “The Pirate”), liberating some 15 villages of the Zadar hinterland within three days, including the strategic sites such as the Novsko \u017edrilo strait and the Zemunik Air Base. It was a turning point of the Homeland War, reconnecting the north and the south of Croatia and allowing further military campaigns by the Croatian Army.
The Operation engaged all services of the Croatian Armed Forces, in the units of the Split Army District, including the 4th Guard Brigade, the Dalmatian towns based brigades (the\u00a0 112nd, 113rd and th 126th Brigades, the 7th Home Guard Regiment,\u00a0 the 72nd Military Police Battalion, Navy operational and special forces, Split-based Electronic Reconnaissance Division and the Croatian Air Force and Air Defence Rotary Wing Squadron). The casualties in the first three days comprised 19 killed and 70 wounded members of the Croatian Army, but unfortunately\u00a0 rose to 127 by the end of March 1993 due to the aggressor’s vehement artillery, tank and infantry and special forces attacks in retaliation for the Operation.<\/p>\n[nggallery id=1672]\n
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Wreaths were laid and respects paid at the Central Cemetery of Zadar on 21 January 2015 to mark the 22nd anniversary of the “Maslenica” Police and Military Operation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4698,"featured_media":36482,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-releases"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n