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The Ustaše agreed to this, but when the Chetniks failed to follow the agreed-upon withdrawal route, the Ustaše attacked the Chetniks at Lijevče Field, afterward killing the captured commanders, while the remaining Chetniks continued to withdraw to Austria with the NDH army and under their military command.
The NDH lacked the forces to suppress the rebels and reluctantly agreed with Italy to bring its troops to the insurgent area. [65] Italy used the uprisings to expand its influence and adopted a pro-Chetnik policy to destabilize the NDH. [66] Many insurgent groups avoided conflict with the Italians and started collaborating with them.
The Chetniks wanted to forge an ethnically pure Greater Serbia claiming it was to ensure the survival of Serbs in Axis/Ustaše-controlled areas by violently "cleansing" these areas of Croats and Muslims. [7] Several historians view Chetnik actions against Muslim and Croats as constituting genocide.
The Battle of Lijevče Field (Serbo-Croatian: Bitka na Lijevča polju, Битка на Лијевча пољу) was fought between 30 March and 8 April 1945 between the Croatian Armed Forces (HOS, the amalgamated Ustashe Militia and Croatian Home Guard forces) and Chetnik forces on the Lijevče field near Banja Luka in what was then the Independent State of Croatia (NDH).
Operation Alfa (Italian: Operazione Alfa; Serbo-Croatian: Operacija Alfa, Операција Алфа) was an offensive carried out in early October 1942 by the military forces of Italy and the Axis puppet state, the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), supported by Chetnik forces under the control of vojvoda Ilija Trifunović-Birčanin.
The NDH combined most of modern Croatia, all of modern Bosnia and Herzegovina and parts of modern Serbia into an "Italian-German quasi-protectorate". [61] Serbs made up about 30% of the NDH population. [62] The NDH was never fully sovereign, but it was a puppet state that enjoyed the greatest autonomy than any other regime in German-occupied ...
On 30 April, the NDH authorities recognised the rights of Drenović and his troops to remain armed in order to fight the Partisans. [23] The agreement between the NDH and Drenović's Chetniks was soon made public by the Ustaše press; [29] Serb public opinion remained divided. [30] By May, Drenović had a force of about 350 Chetniks. [31]
The Chetniks who refused collaboration had heavy battles around Drinjače with the Black Legion and were ultimately defeated around the Drina by April 25. Meanwhile, NDH and German soldiers advanced, and the Partisans began to retreat southwards. Due to this, the Germans hesitated on the option of cutting their losses and ending the offensive.