Siege of Sarajevo

The Siege of Sarajevo is the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare. Serb forces of the Republika Srpska and the Yugoslav People's Army besieged Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, from 5 April 1992 to 29 February 1996 during the Bosnian War. The siege lasted three times longer than the Siege of Stalingrad and a year longer than the Siege of Leningrad. After Bosnia and Herzegovina had declared independence from Yugoslavia, the Serbs--whose strategic goal was to create a new Serbian State of Republika Srpska (RS) that would include part of the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina,--encircled Sarajevo with a siege force of 18,000 stationed in the surrounding hills. From there they assaulted the...