Battalion-Level Exercise Near the Adriatic Sea

In addition to keeping peace in BiH, the principal tasks of EUFOR include providing support and supply to NATO forces arriving to reinforce the EUFOR in case of major incidents in the Balkans.

The simulated mission of the exercise that started on September 1 was to support the units arriving from Italy by sea and leading them to the departure area. The exercise scenario included a number of “incidents" in order to complicate the task execution and to test the training standards of the MNBN personnel.

The peacekeepers were tasked with performing crowd and riot control (CRC) to deal with the protesters demonstrating against the incoming NATO forces, practicing the standard operating procedures (SOP) for the detection of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), setting up roadblocks, providing helicopter-assisted MEDEVAC for wounded troops as well as carrying out force protection (FP) and escort tasks for convoys.

Meanwhile on September 1 Brig.-Gen. Zoltán Gulyás, the Deputy Commander of EUFOR (DCOM EUFOR), Col. (Eng.) Tibor Papp and Capt. Dr. János Ervin Alácsi, the field chaplain of the EUFOR HUNCON-9 were invited to the ceremony closing the Ramadan, the holy month of the Muslims that took place inside the Army Hall in downtown Sarajevo. The Ministry of Defence of BiH held a standing reception on the occasion of the Bayram, i.e. the several-day festivity closing the strict month of fasting (Eid ul-Fitr in Arabic). The event provided an excellent venue for the meeting of the leaders of the NATO and EUFOR forces stationed in BiH and the military attachés. The representatives of the Christian denominations, including Mons. Tomo Vuksic – the ordinary of the Bosnian Catholic Military Ordinariate who was ordained and appointed as bishop early this year– , also attended the meeting.