Former American colonel: The strikers in Banjska were equipped as military infantry

Former US Army Colonel Gian Gentile says the armed group in the September 24th attack on Banjska was equipped as a military infantry of 120 or 130 soldiers and that there was potential to cause major damage to civilian infrastructure in Banjska and police forces.

After analyzing photos and weapons lists confiscated by Kosovo Police after the attack left a police officer killed in the northern part of the country, the associate director at the Military Research Division at the US Institute RAND Corporation, Gentile, says he is surprised by the presence of some of the weapons types.

There were 60-millimeter mortar photos. These are military weapons and are effective against a lightly armed infantry on the other side. But it would be effective if you wanted to stop a tank, for example”, says Gail for Radio Free Europe.

The attack on Banjska took place at night between September 23rd and 24th, when armed groups attacked Kosovo police in the village of Zvecan municipality, leaving a police officer dead.

Three attackers were killed in the subsequent clashes.

Gentile believes confiscated weapons would not be very effective on reinforced facilities, such as bunkers, but says that, in an attack on a group of policemen, the weapons would be very effective.

If your only goal was survival, it would be better to be on the side of the attackers with these types of weapons. The types of weapons in the photos you sent to [shown by Kosovo Police] would destroy a light armed police force with only pistols and perhaps rifle”, Gentile says.

He adds that police forces do not have such military level equipment in the US, and that such weapons could severely damage civil infrastructure, such as houses around the Banjska Monastery, where attackers were sheltered.

This occurred to me... that these are the kinds of weapons, equipment and systems that would be equipped by an infantry company, rather than a police force”, says Gentile, who served several years as a professor at the US military academy, Westpoint.

In the Banjska Monastery and surrounding facilities, including residential homes, large quantities of weapons, two armoured vehicles, more than 20 mountain vehicles and two engines were confiscated, as well, for mountain terrain, Kosovo Police said.

In addition to the two engines, which he says have no military value because their driver would be exposed to the attacks, Gentile says confiscated weapons are the type still used worldwide.

Ukrainian and Russian soldiers certainly use small-caliber mortars, 80-millimeter mortars, and automatic rockets. Then, even machine guns. So, yes, I would say that these systems are definitely used by military forces even today”, says Gail.

For the use of some of the confiscated equipment, Gentile says no longer training would be needed. Basic knowledge of weapon use would suffice. But according to him, things would be complicated if they were to be cleaned and reused.

Then, when we talk about C4 explosives. Someone would have to know how to put an explosive wire in there, how to install it without blowing itself up, says Gail.

At the Kosovo Government meeting on September 27th, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said the value of confiscated weapons is over fivem euros. But all this confiscated weapons can be destroyed.

According to the Criminal Procedure Code in Kosovo, confiscated weapons can be destroyed, but can also be exploited by the country's organs.

Responding to Radio Free Europe, Kosovo Police said the decision on the fate of this “weapon would be issued from the justice organs after the completion of all previous legal procedures”.

In previous cases with seized weapons, when all related procedures have been completed, various actions have been taken. In most cases it has been destroyed”, the Kosovo Police response reported.

Finally, confiscated weapons had been melted off on September 20, four days before the attack on Banjsk and had been used to produce wells. / REL