members provided protection for Jovica Stanišić, head of the Serbian State Security (RDB) who, acting as a mediator, arranged for the safe release of the hostages. In 1996, one year after the Dayton Agreement and the end of conflicts in Croatia and Bosnia, JATD was re-structured and renamed to Jedinica za specijalne operacije, or JSO. A former Yugoslav People's Army barracks in Kula was chosen for its base camp. The JSO also obtained two Ukrainian Mi-24V combat helicopters on the black market, most likely through RDB intermediaries. At the very beginning of the Kosovo War, the unit was ordered to set up a temporary base of operations on the Goč mountain, near Kosovo. From there, JSO launched a number of operations aimed against the Kosovo Liberation Army. One of their first actions was the March 1998 successful assault on the KLA commander Adem Jashari's hideout in Prekaz. The assault was planned and coordinated together with the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit of the police. In May-July 1998, the Mi-24V helicopters of the JSO took part in a joint effort to push KLA out of Kijevo, a strategic village on the Priština-Peć road. The Serbian interior ministry took control over Kijevo on 4 July. Later in 1999, JSO engaged in fierce battles in and around Peć. Due to NATO airstrikes, the unit's Mi-24 helicopters had to be grounded. The unit operated a wide variety of armored vehicles, including American-made Hummers procured via Cyprus, which all proved to be effective for quick operations under constant NATO aerial bombardment. After the Kumanovo Agreement and the subsequent end of the war, the JSO, alongside the police and armed forces, left Kosovo. On 3 October 1999, a vehicle column of Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO), one of Serbia's largest opposition parties at the time, was attacked while moving down Ibar Highway. A tipper truck rammed into the moving vehicles. SPO officials Veselin Bošković, Zvonko Osmajlić, Vučko Rakočević, and Dragan Vušurović were killed in the staged accident and SPO president Drašković was injured. In a ruling by the Belgrade District Court on February 16, 2007, former State Security officer and unit's commander Milorad Ulemek, was sentenced to 15 years in prison and former State Security chief Radomir Marković received eight years. Members of the Special Operations Unit, JSO, Duško Maričić, Branko Berček, Nenad Bujošević, and Leonid Milivojević were sentenced to 14 years in prison. On 25 August 2000, former