After the London Conference , NATO planned an aggressive new air campaign against the Bosnian Serbs . On August 28 , 1995 , Serb forces launched a mortar shell at the Sarajevo marketplace killing 37 people . Admiral Leighton Smith , the NATO commander recommended that NATO launch retaliatory air strikes under Operation Deliberate Force . On August 30 , 1995 , NATO officially launched Operation Deliberate Force with large-scale bombing of Serb targets . The bombing lasted until September 20 , 1995 and involved attacks on 338 individual targets
launched a mortar shell at the Sarajevo marketplace
Markale massacres
NATO intervention in Bosnia and Herzegovina