at the same time avoiding condemnation by the International Community and international public opinion." It is believed that operations to this effect actually began three months before the attack in April 1995. Reconnaissance was carried out from the forward command post at Pribicevac, Besica Brdo, and the Bracan surface mine. Subsequently, the Drina Corps requested that the VRS provide the cooperation of the 65th Protective Motorised Regiment, as well as that of the 1st and 2nd Podrinje Light Infantry Brigades. A sudden flare-up of fierce resistance by the BiH Army against all VRS axes delayed the commencement of the operation by several days, and resources were concentrated on re-acquiring territory lost in these attacks. Srebrenica On 9 July, around 1700 hours, General Ratko Mladić, commander of the VRS main staff, arrived without advance notice at the forward command post in Pribicevac along with other senior VRS Generals to monitor combat operations. Once commanders radioed from the battle theater that they had accomplished their given tasks, Mladić radioed back, "[t]his is Panorama 01. You haven't accomplished your task. Continue the attack. Enter Srebrenica. I am now in command of the forces engaged in this operation." Resistance by the Eastern Bosnia Corps' 28th Division was finally beginning to wane, and Mladić had just effectively relegated Krstić to the role of an observer. Throughout the night and the next day, the VRS pressed forward, making gains in enough key areas to control all of the needed strategic positions to take Srebrenica. It was at this point that NATO fighter pilots in F-16s began flying over the combat operations. On 11 July 1995 the Bratunac Light Infantry Brigade, reinforced by a unit from the Vlasenica Light Infantry Brigade, began a final push into Srebrenica from the Southeast. At 1430 the two F-16s conducted air strikes against VRS tanks, inflicting some damage during the thirty-minute attack, to which Mladić responded by ordering ground troops to take air attack defense measures, such as the burning of haystacks to create smokescreens. The Drina Wolves from the 1st Battalion of the Zvornik Brigade were the first VRS soldiers to enter the town of Srebrenica around 1600 that day. After the area was cleared and more forces arrived, Krstić and the other Generals departed the forward command post and reassembled in Srebrenica. Mladić immediately ordered the brigade commanders to press the attack onward to Potočari and Bratunac, but after