 Eventually, these tensions grew into a low-level civil war that culminated in a series of civilian massacres.On 20 June 1944, members of the Armia Krajowa (AK) killed four members of the 258th Lithuanian Police Battalion in the village of Glitiškės (Glinciszki); in retaliation the Lithuanian police killed 26 or 37 Polish villagers (the Glinciszki massacre).In light of these events as well as other information about intensified pacification actions by the Lithuanian forces, the AK command for the Vilnius Region, under Aleksander Krzyżanowski codename "Wilk", assumed that it represented a beginning of a new, large anti-Polish operation and only a demonstration of the strength of Polish forces in the region could stop the killings and protect the Polish civilians.