[2] In the weeks prior to the Srb Uprising, local Serb civilians had been the victims of Ustaše atrocities.

Throughout July 1941, Ustaše general, Vjekoslav Luburić, ordered the "cleansing" of Serbs from the Donji Lapac area in Lika and the bordering regions of Bosanska Krajina.

[3][4] A number of local Croat peasants from the area joined the Ustaše movement and actively took part in massacres against local Serb civilians, including the massacre of almost 300 Serbs in the nearby village of Suvaja, at the start of July 1941.

[9] On July 27, 1941, Chetniks and other Serb rebels under Chetnik leadership,[1] entered Brotnja, gathering and killing the remaining 37 Croat civilians left in the village, their bodies were thrown into a deep, vertical cave, some were thrown into the pit alive.

[11] Massacres against Croats by Chetniks and other Serb insurgents continued throughout July and August 1941, culminating in further massacres throughout the area of eastern Lika and western Bosnia, such as in Trubar, Bosansko Grahovo, Boričevac, Vrtoče and Krnjeuša.