In February 1998, the Serbian province of Kosovo descended into civil war. For two years, the Albanian nationalist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) had conducted a low-level guerilla campaign against Serbian military police in the province. In response, Serbian forces gradually escalated their counterinsurgency efforts, targeting villages in remote rural regions and along the Albanian border.

As police raids, assaults, and executions against suspected KLA sympathizers increased, support for the once-marginal guerilla group grew.

By summer 1998, the KLA had begun an offensive to seize key territories, including the regions of Drenica, Dukagjin, and Malisheva. Militarily, the campaign was a disaster, and Serbian forces quickly retook the regions, driving KLA fighters across the border into Albania.