Ljubljana - The ten-day war for Slovenian independence started on 26 June 1991, after the country declared its independence. The defence against the Yugoslav People's Army was the result of good preparation for armed combat, appropriate tactics, high military morale, home ground, and local support, according to historians.

Yugoslav forces first occupied border crossings, Slovenian forces with a successful counter-offensive

Armed combat started on 27 June 1991, when the Yugoslav forces started moving towards border crossings in the morning.

The Slovenian operations command's biggest concern was the convoy that was headed to Ljubljana from the south, but the Slovenian Territorial Defence managed to stop it with a roadblock of over 100 trucks.

First armed battles started and there were first casualties on both sides, with many wounded, says historian Damijan Guštin.

Despite road blocks and resistance, the Yugoslav forces controlled most of the border crossings by that evening.

In the same evening, the command of the Slovenian forces ordered a counter-offensive to regain control over the border crossings.

Many were taken successfully, but it was also important to gain control of Yugoslav forces' warehouses, since the Yugoslav army ordered in May 1990 to store most of Slovenian Territorial Defence's weapons at the Yugoslav army's warehouses, which left the Slovenian side with less than 30% of their arsenal.

The Slovenian offensive changed the strategic position drastically, pushing the Yugoslav forces to the verge of defeat due to their unharmonised and ineffective defence.

Another drawback was that Yugoslav units, being composed of conscripts from all of the Yugoslav republics, started falling apart. The first ones to desert were soldiers of Slovenian nationality and officers who lived in Slovenia for a long time.

Air raids marked the second phase of Yugoslav army's aggression against Slovenia

In the following days, Slovenian forces had no new casualties as they regained control over most of the border crossings.

A Yugoslav convoy in the south of Slovenia was the main talking point. Since the Yugoslav army could not complete its objectives, it decided to regain advantage with air raids. The Slovenian units that were blocking the convoy were attacked first, followed by attacks on television transmitters on Nanos, Krvavec and Kum.

The raids supported several attempts by the blocked convoys to break through, but Slovenia responded with systematic occupation of guard posts near the border.

The commander of Slovenian Territorial Defence, Janez Slapar, offered a ceasefire that was refused by the Yugoslav side.

The Slovenian presidency declared a unilateral ceasefire, while the conditions were to be decided by a Slovenian-Yugoslav commission. Yugoslavia agreed to this the following day, on 3 July.

The commission decided that Yugoslav armoured convoys and blocked units must retreat into barracks, which happened by 5 July, when Slovenian authorities connected the barracks back to the power and water supply systems.

Slovenian command foresaw the intervention by the Yugoslav forces, which did not expect resistance

Numerous factors contributed to the successful defence of Slovenia, including Yugoslavia's strategic misjudgement that there would be no resistance on the Slovenian side. Guštin says that this resulted in a wrong selection of tactics.

There were also big differences in military morale among Yugoslav soldiers of mixed nationalities, which was quite low on average.

At first, the Yugoslav forces used almost 2,000 soldiers and 150 armoured vehicles and tanks for the operation in Slovenia, supported by 461 police officers and 270 customs officers.

The Slovenian command knew that there was a very high chance of Yugoslav intervention. Already on 19 June, they enlisted 5,000 additional Territorial Defence members, some National Protection officers and all of the reserve police officers. Until 26 June, they enlisted 20,000 new Territorial Defence soldiers, of whom 16,000 responded.

Brijuni agreement strengthened the ceasefire but did not stop the independence process

The representatives of the European Community, Slovenia, Croatia and Yugoslavia met on Croatia's Brijuni Islands on 7 July 1991 to put an end to hostilities in Slovenia. With the signing of the Brijuni Declaration, Slovenia agreed to suspend its independence activities for three months, but in reality, they only proceeded faster.

The Yugoslav administration realised they would not be able to stop the independence process, so it decided on 18 July to withdraw all Yugoslav army members from Slovenia in three months.

The last convoy boarded a ferry in the port of Koper on 25 October 1991

But while the war in Slovenia ended and the Yugoslav Army withdrew, armed conflicts moved to its immediate vicinity, to neighbouring Croatia and later to Bosnia-Herzegovina, with the siege of Sarajevo starting in April 1992.