Clashes spread down the Lašva Valley in central Bosnia . The HVO wanted to link up the towns of Kreševo , Kiseljak , Vitez , Busovača and Novi Travnik , which would have created a corridor across central Bosnia . An offensive was launched in which the HVO Commander Dario Kordić implemented an ethnic cleansing strategy in the Lašva Valley to expel the Bosniak population . The massacre in Ahmići on 16 April 1993 was the culmination of the operation . The village of Ahmići was attacked by surprise in the morning with mortar rounds and sniper fire . The attack resulted in mass killing of at least 103 Bosniak civilians . The main mosque was burned and its minaret demolished . The attack was preplanned and resulted in a " deliberate massacre of unarmed , unwarned civilians : HVO troops systematically set out to find and execute the entire population . " Afterwards a cleanup operation was carried out to disguise what had occurred
ethnic cleansing strategy in the Lašva Valley
Lašva Valley ethnic cleansing
Croat–Bosniak War