Source R Tim Judah, a reporter and political analyst, writing in the academic book Kosovo: What Everyone Needs to Know (2008).

On January 22, 1998, the police tried to arrest Adem Jashari, but failed. One month later, as tensions continued to mount, the United States special envoy to the region criticized Serbian police violence but also described the KLA as a terrorist group. Perhaps Slobadan Milosevic interpreted this as an invitation to act. Fighting began in the village of Likosane [Likoshan] on February 28. It culminated a few days later when Serbian security forces finally took Adem Jashari’s family compound. He was killed, along with members of his extended family and others, making a total of 51 dead. There was no going back. Jashari’s image, with bushy beard and white, domed Albanian hat, would be found everywhere and the man himself elevated to the status of a saint.

Kosovar Albanians were overtaken by conflicting emotions. Fear was one of them, but another, euphoria, was stronger, especially as the KLA began to take territory in central Drenica and in the west. More and more young men began to trek over the mountains to Albania to collect weapons, and more and more people began to donate to the KLA instead of contributing to [Ibrahim] Rugova’s fund.

[Source: Judah, T., 2008. Kosovo What Everyone Needs to Know Copyright © 2008 by Tim Judah.
Reproduced with permission of the Licensor through PLSclear.]

Source S R Craig Nation, a professor of Russian and Eurasian Studies, writing in the academic book War in the Balkans 1991–2002 (2003).

The KLA’s strength at the beginning of 1998 was estimated at around 500 active members … [and] would probably not have become a major threat, had it not been for two events. The first was the collapse of the Albanian government in the spring of 1997. In the ensuing riots, weapons were looted and as many as a million light arms were distributed among the [Albanian] population. Many of these weapons ended in the hands of KLA fighters, smuggled across the mountains dividing Albania from Kosovo.

The second event was the decision by Serbian authorities to launch a campaign to suppress armed resistance. A police action on January 22, 1998, failed to arrest Adem Jashari, the head of a powerful clan in the Drenica region who had become a symbol of local independence. An armed assault against the Jashari clan followed, leaving 58 people dead.

The bloodbath had the predictable effect of galvanizing [stimulating] resentment, and the KLA grew rapidly. Within Kosovo, however, lightly armed militants were no match for the disciplined military forces of a modern state. In June 1998, the Serbian Army launched a counter offensive, with over 40 000 troops operating with tanks, helicopters, heavy artillery, and mortar fire, that gathered momentum as it progressed. By late summer, it seemed to be on the verge of breaking organized resistance once and for all.

[Source: Nation, R.C., 2003. War in the Balkans 1991–2002. Strategic Studies Institute, p. 227.]