Parachute Brigade

BELGRADE - Twenty-two Serbian Armed Forces servicemen departed for Slovenia on Wednesday to join flood relief efforts in the country.

The servicemen, who come from the Serbian Air Force and the 63rd Parachute Brigade, took off from the Colonel Pilot Milenko Pavlovic Air Base in Batajnica near Belgrade aboard H-145 and Mi-17 helicopters.

A military officer opened fire with blank rounds and threw flash-bang grenades at the 2nd Parachute Brigade in Aspropyrgos, near Athens, on Friday, according to reports.

According to some accounts, the officer is alleged to have taken a fellow officer hostage during the incident. The Military Police intervened and subsequently arrested the officer.

"Based on the directive of the Supreme Commander of the Serbian Army and the President of the Republic, Aleksandar Vui, a check of the combat readiness of the commands, units and institutions of the Serbian Army began early this morning," it was stated at the beginning of the press release.

Looking back almost 20 years later, veteran journalist Milos Vasic told BIRN in an interview that the incident should have been recognised at the time as the "next step" in a chain of events that ultimately led to the assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic on March 12, 2003.

The military exercise, which showed the training of the 72nd Brigade for special operations of the Serbian Army called "Spearhead 2021", began at 11 a.m. in the "Rastko Nemanjic" barracks in Pancevo, in the presence of President Aleksandar Vucic.
The 63rd Parachute Brigade and part of the Air Force and Air Defense units also took part.

The military flags handover ceremony on the occasion of establishing the 72nd Special Operations Brigade and the 63rd Parachute Brigade is being held at the "Second Serbian Uprising" Memorial Complex in Takovo.