Almost eleven years ago, U.S. and other allied troops entered Kosovo following a nearly three-month-long air campaign—Operation Allied Force—by the U.S. and the Air Forces of its NATO allies and which included the first participation in combat by the German Air Force since World War II.
The bombing campaign—which also included the use of Tomahawk cruise missiles—and the subsequent invasion followed extensive but fruitless diplomatic-military condemnations, initiatives and ultimatums by the United Nations, the North Atlantic Alliance, NATO and other international entities railing against massive ethnic cleansing, massacres, war crimes and other crimes allegedly committed by Serbia, its leader Slobodan Milosevic, and his military and security forces in the Balkans.
The NATO-led international Kosovo Force (KFOR) entered Kosovo on June 12, 1999, under a United Nations Security Council Mandate and was well established in Kosovo by June 20.
Its mission was to establish and maintain a secure environment in Kosovo, including public safety and order; to monitor, verify and when necessary, enforce compliance with the conditions of the Military Technical Agreement and to provide assistance to the UN Mission in Kosovo.
At its full strength, according to KFOR documentation, KFOR would “comprise some 50,000 personnel as a multinational force under unified command and control with substantial NATO participation.”
As of September, 2009, according to the KFOR website, the multinational force consisted of more than 13,500 soldiers from 25 NATO and 8 non-NATO nations.
The “military” newspaper Stars and Stripes reports today that the U.S. and other countries are gradually reducing their military presence in Kosovo and that the U.S. will be pulling and additional 570 of its troops out of Kosovo in the next two months, as part of a NATO restructuring.
By the end of May, only 830 U.S. troops will remain in Kosovo. At the peak of U.S. troop strength in Kosovo, there were about 7,000 troops in-country.
Still, “troops from 40 [U.S.] states are currently serving in Kosovo.”
Apparently, an incident during a parade last Friday, involving a member of the Kosovo Security Forces—which NATO trains and supports—has prompted NATO to call off its support “until it received an explanation of the incident, remedial action and guarantees that such incidents would be avoided in the future.”
So, things are still interesting in Kosovo.
Thought you might like to know about another country where our military are still serving, and serving well.
To learn more about KFOR and what our troops are doing there, please click here.
