Zaharije Ostojić
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Lieutenant Colonel Zaharije Ostojić |
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| Native name | Захарије Остојић |
| Nickname(s) | Branko Zare |
| Born | 1907 Gluhi Do, near Bar Principality of Montenegro |
| Died | April 1945 Independent State of Croatia |
| Allegiance |
 Yugoslavia (–1941) Chetniks (1941–45) |
| Years of service | –1945 |
| Rank | Lieutenant Colonel |
| Commands held |
Chief of staff to Supreme Chetnik Command Chetnik detachments in Herzegovina |
| Battles/wars | |
Zaharije Ostojić (Serbian Cyrillic: Захарије Остојић; 1907 – April 1945) was a Montenegrin Serb military officer who served as the chief of the operational, organisational and intelligence branches of the Chetnik Supreme Command led by Draža Mihailović in Yugoslavia during World War II. He was a major in the Yugoslav Royal Air Force prior to the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia, and was involved in the coup that deposed Prince Paul of Yugoslavia on 27 March 1941. After the coup, he escorted Prince Paul to exile in Greece, and was in Cairo at the time of the invasion in April. In September 1941, he was landed on the Italian-occupied Montenegrin coast along with a British Special Operations Executive (SOE) liaison officer and two companions. He escorted the SOE officer to the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia and introduced him to the Yugoslav Partisan leader Josip Broz Tito then Mihailović. Ostojić soon became Mihailović's chief of staff, and after the German attempt to capture the Chetnik leader during Operation Mihailović in December 1941, brought the Chetnik Supreme staff to Montenegro where they were re-united with Mihailović in June 1942. During the remainder of 1942, Ostojić launched a counter-attack against Ustaše troops of the Independent State of Croatia returning to the eastern Bosnian town of Foča where they were expected to continue their genocidal anti-Serb policies. As many as 2,000 local Muslims were subsequently killed in the town by forces under Ostojić's command. Ostojić later oversaw large-scale massacres of civilians and burning of Muslim villages in the border region between Montenegro and the Sandžak.
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