The Republic of Slovenia was declared independent on 25 June 1991, a full day before expected. This was to give the
Slovenian army or MSNZ, a sort of Slovenian army reserve for home defence consisting of 21,000 ex-army and police
personnel an advantage as the Yugoslav army (JNA) was expected to oppose Slovenia's declaration of independence.
The Slovenian army used this time to seize control of the republic's border posts and the international airport at
Brnik. As the majority of the border posts had been manned by Slovenians there had been no fighting in the
takeover. In the months leading up to the declaration the Slovenian government had secretly bought anti-tank weapons
and anti-aircraft missiles from foreign suppliers. As they could not match the JNA's firepower they would use
guerrilla tactics like attacking the leading and rear tanks in JNA tank collumns in areas with limited
manouverability, hit and run ambushes and avoiding frontal clashes. On the 26 of June the JNA mobilised and moved in
to seize the border posts with Italy and on 27 a JNA armoured brigade moved from their base near Ljubljana to seize
control of Brnik airport. The Slovenian president Milan Kucan had been informed of the JNA's intention to seize the
border posts and airport. At a meeting of the Slovene presidency it was decided to take up armed resistence. The
first engagement of the war took place on the 27th when two JNA helicopters were shot down over Ljubljana thus
beginning the 10 day war. As the war was very brief there were few casualties. According to Slovenian estimates the
JNA suffered 44 fatalities, 146 wounded and a further 4,692 JNA taken prisoner. The JNA also lost 31 tanks, 22 APC's,
6 helicopters, 87 artillary pieces and 124 air defence weapons. The Slovenes suffered 18 fatalities and 182 wounded.
As there was only a very small Serbian minority in Slovenia the JNA had very little interest in opposing Slovenias
independence, they were more concerned about the situation in Croatia and even before the war had ended they had begun
to reposition their troops for the imminent war there. Below are some more recent photos of the Slovenian army.
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