After the Independent State of Croatia was declared, Ustaše authorities began recruiting local Croats to join their ranks.
Stories of these massacres spread throughout the region from survivors to local Croats and Muslims warning their Serb neighbors of impending attacks.
[5] Chetniks and other Serb rebels, led by Mane Rovkić, entered the Croat village of Vrtoče on 8 August 1941.
[3][2] Among their first victims were family members of local Ustaše leader, Miroslav Matijević, his elderly parents were slaughtered, beheaded and had their heads impaled on stakes.
Upon hearing that his parents had been murdered, Matijević in an act of revenge killed 28 Serb men, women and children in the village of Kulen Vakuf.