The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was an ethnic-Albanian paramilitary group that waged an insurgency campaign against the Serbian government from 1996 to 1999 with the goal of creating an independent Kosovo. Formed in 1991, the KLA fought against security forces, police, government officers, and Serb villages, and the Serbian army and ethnic Serb paramilitaries cracked down on the KLA during the 1998-99 Kosovo War. After the end of the war, the 45,000-strong KLA disbanded, and many of its leaders entered politics.