Sarajevo Marks 33rd Anniversary of Record Artillery Barrage in 1993

On 22 July 1993, the besieged city of Sarajevo experienced the heaviest one‑day artillery attack of the Bosnian War. Forces of the Republika Srpska fired 3,777 shells over 1,440 minutes, averaging two grenades per minute. Throughout the four‑year siege, the besiegers launched roughly 50,000 tonnes of artillery projectiles, destroying most civilian, cultural and religious structures. The siege claimed 11,541 lives, including 1,601 children, and left more than 56,000 people wounded. International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) later convicted senior Bosnian Serb leaders—Stanislav Galić, Dragomir Milošević, Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić—for crimes committed during the siege. Today, the anniversary is remembered as a stark reminder of the war's devastation.