Siege Of Sarajevo

Sarajevo was besieged for the longest period in modern warfare history. It started on April 5, 1992and ended on February 29, 1996.

It lasted three times longer than the Battle of Stalingrad and more than a year longer than the Siege of Leningrad. During the Siege, 13,952 people were killed, including 5,434 civilians.

At first, the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) and the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) surrounded and shelled Bosnia’s capital. Numerous cultural institutions, historical monuments, sports venues, and much of the city’s socioeconomic infrastructure were damaged or destroyed.

Women run for their lives across 'Sniper Alley' under the sights of Serb gunmen during the siege of Sarajevo in 1992

 

During the Bosnian War, cellist Vedran Smailovic plays Strauss inside the bombed-out National Library in Sarajevo, on September 12, 1992.

 

A Bosnian fighter ignores the risk from snipers to bravely help an elderly man cross a dangerous intersection on Sniper Alley, July 1992.

 

A girl runs through Hero’s Square on the Sarajevo frontline where residents constantly suffered heavy shelling and sniping during the siege, 1994.

Two dogs lie sleeping in a Sarajevo street, 1994.