History of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina

In 1988 The Yugoslav Army had placed the Bosnian provincial Territorial Defence Force under 1 Military District (Belgrade), and reduced its strength two-thirds to 86,362 in December 1991.

In March 1991 Sefer Halilović formed the Patriotic League (Patriotska Liga - PL) as an independent Bosnian army, with the same territorial organization as the TO.

On 4 April, Alija Izetbegović ordered general mobilization: and on 8 April he transformed the Sarajevo TO command into GHQ of the Teritorijalna Odbrana Republike Bosne i Hercegovine (Territorial Defence Force of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina) (TORBIH), appointing the Bosnian-Muslim Colonel Hasan Efendić as commander of the army, Colonel Stjepan Šiber, a Bosnian-Croat, became chief-of-staff, and Colonel Jovan Divjak, a Bosnian-Serb, his deputy.

On 20 May 1992 the TORBIH, PL, and other militias and the Bosnian-Croat HVO and HOS were officially united as Armed Forces of the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina (Oruzane Snage Republike Bosne i Hercegovine).

On 20 May 1992 the TORBIH was renamed Armija Republike Bosne i Hercegovine (Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina) - ARBIH, usually abbreviated ABIH.

5th Corps (Bihać) was established on 21 October 1992 from the Una-Sana Operational Group to defend the North-Western Bosnian enclave.