The Dobrinja mortar attack was a massacre which occurred at 10:20 a.m. on 1 June 1993, in

Dobrinja Dobrinja ( sr-cyrl, Добриња) is a neighbourhood in the western outskirts of Sarajevo, part of the municipality of Novi Grad. It is estimated to have a population of 25,063 inhabitants. Its name comes from the short river ''Dobrinjka'' th ...

, a suburb west of

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

. Two mortar rounds were fired from Serb-held positions, hitting a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

pitch where youths put on an impromptu game on the first day of the

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

holiday Kurban Bajram.(6:39: "Today was a holiday for the Muslims of Bosnia, and some young people decided to ignore the war and choose up sides for a ball game. It wasn't long before their soccer field was soaked in blood. As David Martin reports, it was a grim reminder of the world's failure to end the slaughter in Bosnia.") Approximately 200 people were in attendance to watch the game. The

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

placed the official death toll stemming from the mortar attack at 13 (news reports at the time published numbers ranging from 11 to 15 deaths), with 133 wounded. At the time it was the deadliest event involving civilians since the imposition of sanctions against the

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Serbia and Montenegro ( sr, Cрбија и Црна Гора, translit=Srbija i Crna Gora) was a country in Southeast Europe located in the Balkans that existed from 1992 to 2006, following the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...

by the United Nations one year prior.

References

Massacres in the Bosnian War Mass murder in 1993 1993 in Bosnia and Herzegovina June 1993 events in Europe Conflicts in 1993 {{BosniaHerzegovina-hist-stub