After the town was occupied by the VRS that evening, large numbers of people, exhausted by three years of unrelenting violence and deprivation, sought refuge in vain at Potočari (up to 4,000 inside the base, and 24,000 outside, mainly women and children). The peacekeepers were instructed by their political masters in The Hague to abandon their posts, and promptly did so, withdrawing to the UNPROFOR base at a disused factory in Potočari, 5 km north of the town, where they remained until 21 July. On 10 July, the peacekeepers requested air strikes, and on the afternoon of 11 July there was an air strike against VRS tanks approaching the town, but further planned strikes were called off due to poor visibility and after Mladić threatened to kill hostages and shell crowds of IDPs. UNPROFOR observation points were overrun and over 50 of the 300 Dutch peacekeepers taken hostage. The VRS offensive against Srebrenica, with the enclave’s commanders kept in Tuzla (see above), started on 6 July.
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