Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the context of "Croat–Bosniak War"

The Old Bridge (Serbo-Croatian: Stari most), also known as the Mostar Bridge, is a rebuilt 16th-century Ottoman bridge in the city of Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It crosses the river Neretva and connects the two parts of the city, which is named after the bridge keepers (mostari) who guarded the Old Bridge during the Ottoman era. Commissioned by Suleiman the Magnificent in 1557 and designed by Mimar Hayruddin, a student and apprentice of the architect Mimar Sinan, the Old Bridge is an exemplary piece of Balkan Islamic architecture.

During the Croat–Bosniak War, the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) used the bridge as a military supply line, leading the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) to shell and destroy it on 9 November 1993. Subsequently, the bridge was reconstructed, and it reopened on 23 July 2004. In 2017, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) deemed that the bridge was a legitimate military target.

Ethnic cleansing occurred during the Bosnian War (1992–95) as large numbers of Bosniaks and Croats were forced to flee their homes or were expelled by the Army of Republika Srpska and Serb paramilitaries. Bosnian Serbs had also been forced to flee or were expelled by Bosniaks and Bosnian Croat forces, though on a restricted scale and in lesser numbers. A lot of Bosnian Croats were also expelled by the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but once again, on a restricted scale. The UN Security Council Final Report (1994) states while Bosniaks also engaged in "grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and other violations of international humanitarian law", they "have not engaged in "systematic ethnic cleansing". According to the report, "there is no factual basis for arguing that there is a 'moral equivalence' between the warring factions".

Beginning in 1991, political upheavals in Bosnia and Herzegovina displaced about 2.7 million people by mid-1992, of which over 700,000 sought asylum in other European countries, making it the largest exodus in Europe at the time since World War II. It is estimated between 1.0 and 1.3 million people were uprooted in these ethnic cleansing campaigns, and that tens of thousands were killed.

The Army of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian: Vojska Federacije Bosne i Hercegovine or VFBiH) was the military of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina created after the 1995 Dayton Agreement. It consisted of two merging units which had been in conflict with each other during the Croat-Bosniak War: the Bosniak Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) and the Croat Croatian Defence Council (HVO). In 2005 it was integrated into Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina controlled by the Ministry of Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Željko Komšić (Croatian pronunciation: [ˈʒɛːʎkɔ ˈkɔmʃitɕ]; born 20 January 1964) is a Bosnian Croat politician serving as the 6th and current Croat member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2018. He has also been serving as its chairman since July 2025. Previously, he was a member of the national House of Representatives from 2014 to 2018.

Born in 1964, Komšić earned a degree in law from the University of Sarajevo in 1988, and later attended a specialization program at Georgetown University. He served in the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian War, and was awarded with the Order of the Golden Lily. Following the war, Komšić worked at the Federal Ministry of Displaced Persons and Refugees, before being elected municipal mayor of Novo Sarajevo in 2000. He then served as the Bosnian ambassador to FR Yugoslavia. In the 2006 general election, Komšić successfully ran for a seat in the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina as the Croat member. He was re-elected to the office in the 2010 election. Komšić was a prominent figure of the Social Democratic Party, until he left it in 2012 to establish the Democratic Front a year later. Following the end of his term in the Presidency, he was elected to the national House of Representatives in the 2014.

The Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia (Croatian: Hrvatska Republika Herceg-Bosna) was an unrecognized geopolitical entity and quasi-state in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was proclaimed on 18 November 1991 under the name Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia (Croatian: Hrvatska Zajednica Herceg-Bosna) as a "political, cultural, economic and territorial whole" in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and abolished on 14 August 1996.

The Croatian Community of Bosnian Posavina, proclaimed in northern Bosnia on 12 November 1991, was joined with Herzeg-Bosnia in October 1992. In its proclaimed borders, Herzeg-Bosnia encompassed about 30% of the country, but did not have effective control over the entire territory as parts of it were lost to the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) at the beginning of the Bosnian War. The armed forces of Herzeg-Bosnia, the Croatian Defence Council (HVO), were formed on 8 April 1992 and initially fought in an alliance with the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Their relations deteriorated throughout late 1992, which led to the Croat–Bosniak War.

The Croatian Defence Council (Croatian: Hrvatsko vijeće obrane, HVO) was the armed wing of Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia. It existed in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1991 and 1996. The HVO was the main military force of the Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In the initial stage of the Bosnian War, the HVO fought alongside the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) against the Army of Republika Srpska, but in the latter stage of the conflict clashed against radical islamists, particularly in the Mostar area. The European Community Monitoring Mission estimated the strength of the HVO in the beginning of 1993 at 45,000–55,000. In July 1993, the Central Intelligence Agency estimated the HVO forces at 40,000 to 50,000 men.

Operation Storm (Serbo-Croatian: Operacija Oluja / Операција Олуја) was the last major battle of the Croatian War of Independence and a major factor in the outcome of the Bosnian War. It was a decisive victory for the Croatian Army (HV), which attacked across a 630-kilometre (390 mi) front against the self-declared proto-state Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK), and a strategic victory for the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH). The HV was supported by the Croatian special police advancing from the Velebit Mountain, and the ARBiH located in the Bihać pocket, in the Army of the Republic of Serbian Krajina's (ARSK) rear. The battle, launched to restore Croatian control of 10,400 square kilometres (4,000 square miles) of territory - representing 18.4% of the territory it claimed - and Bosniak control of Western Bosnia, was the largest land battle that took place in Europe between the end of World War II and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Operation Storm commenced at dawn on 4 August 1995 and was declared complete on the evening of 7 August, despite significant mopping-up operations against pockets of resistance lasting until 14 August.

Operation Storm was a strategic victory in the Bosnian War, effectively ending the siege of Bihać and placing the HV, Croatian Defence Council (HVO), and the ARBiH in a position to change the military balance of power in Bosnia and Herzegovina through the subsequent Operation Mistral 2. The operation was conceived on HV and HVO advances made during Operation Summer '95, when strategic positions allowing the rapid capture of the RSK capital Knin were gained, and on the continued arming and training of the HV since the beginning of the Croatian War of Independence, when the RSK was created during the Serb Log Revolution and Yugoslav People's Army intervention. The operation itself followed an unsuccessful United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission and diplomatic efforts to settle the conflict.