in the
White Drin valley, at the Albanian border In 1992–1993, ethnic Albanians created the
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) which started attacking
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) police forces and secret-service officials who abused Albanian civilians in 1995. Starting in 1998, the KLA was involved in frontal battle, with increasing numbers of Yugoslav security forces. Escalating tensions led to the
Kosovo War in February 1998. As tensions increased, it became increasingly difficult for the
Albanian Army to monitor the country's 140-kilometre (87 mi) border with the FRY and cope with the steady influx of
Kosovar Albanian refugees into the country. Yugoslav army units controlled the border in a few areas, but generally relied on the remote mountainous terrain to do their work for them. Many Yugoslav border units suffered from lack of manpower, with the wars in
Bosnia and Herzegovina and
Croatia having seriously damaged their resources. The morale of soldiers was low, with food often poor, and spare parts for army and police equipment and supplies were difficult to obtain. Albanian authorities were concerned with attempts by
Serbia to implicate Albania as a
supporter of terrorism. The Albanian Army had an estimated 4,000–6,000 soldiers, and Yugoslavia was said to have "little regard" for the country's military. The Kosovo War caused thousands of Kosovar Albanians to join the KLA ranks. More than 500,000 ethnic Albanian refugees fled their homes in fear of Yugoslav Army reprisals between 1998 and 1999. Meanwhile, the KLA began to recruit in the refugee camps. There had been fighting along the border between the KLA and Yugoslav forces where KLA troops had infiltrated into Kosovo. The subsequent incursion by the FRY could have been in response to KLA actions in the area, according to Albanian police. Relations between the FRY and
Albania had been strained as 300,000 ethnic Albanians had fled into Albania itself. The Yugoslavs had been angered over Albania's support of
NATO airstrikes and its sheltering of KLA militants. The
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) had reported previous Yugoslav Army incursions into Albanian territory. The border was lightly defended by the
Albanian Army which was ordered not to fire back after a Yugoslav Army attack. A KLA commander reported that rebel forces had crossed over into Kosovo near
Tropojë, a KLA stronghold, in the days before the attack, this incursion was confirmed by an OSCE monitor. ==Incident==