ZAGREB, Croatia — Chanting ‘‘Victory! Victory!,’’ waving flags, and dancing in the streets, tens of thousands of jubilant supporters gave two Croatian generals a hero’s welcome Friday after a UN war crimes tribunal overturned their convictions for murdering and expelling Serb civilians during a 1995 military blitz.

Croatians viewed the decision to release Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac as vindication that they were victims in the Balkan wars in the 1990s, but neighboring Serbia denounced the ruling as a scandalous injustice toward tens of thousands of its compatriots expelled from Croatia after an offensive led by the two.