Bosnian Muslim ex-commander arrested for war crimes

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Bosnian police arrested on Wednesday a Muslim former deputy army commander suspected of killing more than 20 Croat civilians and prisoners of war during the 1993 Muslim-Croat war, the state prosecutor's office said.

The State Information and Protection Agency (SIPA) arrested Nihad Bojadzic, 47, in central Sarajevo on orders of the state prosecutor, said Boris Grubesic, spokesman for the prosecutor's office.

"Bojadzic is suspected of committing crimes against civilians and prisoners of war while serving as deputy commander of the Bosnian Muslim-led army special platoon 'Zulfikar'", he said.

The mass killing occurred on April 16, 1993, during an attack on the southern village of Trusina, he said.

"During the attack 19 civilians and three Croat soldiers, who had given themselves in earlier, were killed and four civilians, of whom 2 children were wounded," said Grubesic.

In September, Bosnian police arrested four Bosnian Muslims on the same charges.

Bosnian Muslims and Croats entered the 1992-95 war as allies against Bosnian Serbs but then fought their own war in 1993-94, which was ended by a Washington-brokered peace agreement.

Bojadzic will be handed over to the Bosnian state war crimes court, set up in 2005 to try thousands of suspects from the 1992-95 war and take over mid- and low-ranking cases from the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

(Reporting by Maja Zuvela; Editing by Charles Dick)