The legendary commander of the 505th Knight Brigade of the Fifth Corps of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) Izet Nanić died on this day 29 years ago.
Izet Nanić was born on October 4, 1965 in Nanića Dolina, Bužim municipality. He graduated from the Military Academy, and his first military engagement was in Kragujevac, where he worked as a lieutenant in the Air Force until the beginning of the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina, when he left the Yugoslavian National Army and came home.
When the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina began, he was among those who formed the first units. He is one of the founders and the first commander of the Bužim Territorial Defense Headquarters. From August 15, 1992, he was appointed commander of the 105th, later the 505th Bužim Knights Brigade, whose commander he was until his death.
The hero of the liberation war and winner of the highest war award, the Golden Lily, died on August 5, 1995, in Operation Storm, in the wider area of Ćorkovača.
The Croatian army launched Operation Storm with the aim of liberating the territory of the Republic of Croatia. The strategic goal of all units of the 5th Corps was to merge with units of the Croatian Army.
The knight’s brigade broke through the enemy lines on Čorkovača and headed towards Dvor na Una. Just a few hours before the final release of the blockade, commander Izet Nanić was killed in an ambush.
Nanić did not live to line up his brave comrades as a winner.
A monument was erected to him and his brother Nevzet near Bužim. Every year, in his honor, the event “Freedom Days of Knight Bužim” is organized in this city.
Bužim, a place with 18,000 inhabitants before the aggression, became a symbol of resistance and courage of the most elite army of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina – the 505th Knights Brigade.
