The National Liberation Army (NLA) committed an attack near the village of Brest on 9 March 2001 during the insurgency in Macedonia.

[9][11][6] The NLA ambushed a Macedonian convoy, after they were defeated and forced to withdraw by KFOR troops in the village of Tanuševci.

[12][13] The officials trapped were deputy interior minister Refet Elmazi, state secretary of the ministry of internal affairs Ljube Boškoski and Macedonian police general Aleksandar Dončev.

[5] Immediately after the ambush an hour-long battle involving artillery and heavy mortars erupted, after which most of the Macedonian convoy managed to escape.

[5][9][14] After the firefight the NLA established control in Molino and Brest and the insurgency spread to wider parts of the country.