How were Bosnian cultural sites targeted during the Bosnian conflict?

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Ajanta Caves: reclining Buddha — World Heritage site Reclining Buddha statue, Ajanta Caves, north-central Maharashtra state, India.

During the Bosnian conflict (1992–1995), the deliberate destruction of cultural property was used as a tool of war, despite the 1954 Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, which explicitly forbids such actions.1

Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) cultural objects and historical sites were intentionally targeted and destroyed as a key component of the ethnic cleansing campaign carried out by the Yugoslav and Bosnian Serb armies. This systematic destruction was not merely collateral damage but was often an end unto itself, aimed at erasing the cultural presence and heritage of the targeted population within the region.1