33 YEARS AGO, 16 SERBIAN SOLDIERS WERE KILLED AND TWO CHILDREN BRUTALLY MURDERED

ISTOČNO NOVO SARAJEVO, JUNE 8 /SRNA/ - On this day 33 years ago, 16 soldiers of the Republika Srpska Army were killed, and 30 were seriously wounded in an attack by enemy Muslim forces on Mojmilo Hill in Sarajevo. On the same day, six-year-old Todor Drašković and thirteen-year-old Dijana Ćosović were also killed.

Dragiša Tuševljak, the president of the War Veterans Organization of the municipality of Istočno Novo Sarajevo, told SRNA that June 8, 1992, is the saddest day for the fighters of the Second Infantry Battalion of the First Sarajevo Mechanized Brigade and the municipality of Srpsko Novo Sarajevo. "On this day 33 years ago, enemy forces attacked the positions of Serb soldiers in Ozrenska, Zagorska, and Milikadska streets," Tuševljak said. Tuševljak recalled that the aim of the enemy forces, which were significantly more numerous, was to gain control of the area inhabited predominantly by the Serb population. By doing so, they would have taken control over the Lukavica neighborhood and a key transport route. "Fully aware of their responsibility, and knowing that their families were just behind the front line, the soldiers mounted a fierce resistance to the enemy," Tuševljak emphasized. He said that the fighting lasted continuously throughout the day, and at one point, the Serb positions were breached. At that moment, former neighbors stormed into the Drašković home and killed Todor, a six-year-old child who was sitting in the lap of his stepmother, whom they wounded and left behind. On that same day, Tuševljak recalled, a sniper shot killed thirteen-year-old Dijana Ćosović. Tuševljak stated that by regrouping their forces, the Serb fighters successfully pushed back the enemy and retained their previously established positions.