Bulgarian anti-guerrilla detachments in Vardar Macedonia during WWII

At that time, the authorities claimed the communist partisans were Serbian chetniks, and on this occasion the counter-squads were mobilized.

[3] Their formation was approved by the Minister of the Interior Petar Gabrovski at the suggestion of the Skopje police chief Stefan Simeonov, who was a former activist of the Internal Dobrujan Revolutionary Organisation.

[5] These units were particularly active in punitive operations directed against Serbian colonists in the region and by their deportation.

[6] Counter-chetas were also active in fighting the Serbian Chetnik formations of Kosta Pećanac in the north.

[9] After the withdrawal of Bulgarian authorities from the region in September 1944, and Ivan Mihailov's subsequent refusal to form a pro-German puppet state, most of the participants were killed in combat with the Macedonian partisans or were subsequently captured and convicted by the new communist authorities in Yugoslavia and Bulgaria.