Operation Summer '95

Operation Summer '95 (Croatian: Operacija Ljeto '95) was a joint military offensive of the Croatian Army (HV) and the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) that took place northwest of the Livanjsko field and around Bosansko Grahovo and Glamoč, in the western Bosnia and Herzegovina. The operation was carried out in 25–29 July 1995, during the Croatian War of Independence and the Bosnian War. The attacking force of 8,500 troops, commanded by HV's Lieutenant General Ante Gotovina, encountered initially strong resistance of the 5,500 VRS 2nd Krajina Corps. The HV/HVO pushed the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) back capturing about 1,600 square kilometres (620 square miles) of territory, intercepting Knin–Drvar road—critical for supply of the self-declared Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK). The operation failed to achieve its declared primary goal—draw VRS units from the besieged city of Bihać—but it placed the HV in a good position to capture RSK capital of Knin days later in Operation Storm.

Operation Summer '95 was launched in response to renewed attacks of the VRS and the RSK military on the Bihać pocket, one of six United Nations Safe Areas established in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The area was viewed as strategic to Croatian military effort by the HV General Staff as it presented an obstacle to supply of the RSK and it pinned down a portion of the RSK military, as well as some VRS forces that would otherwise be redeployed. The international community feared a humanitarian disaster greater in scale than any other of the war to that point would occur if the Bihać pocket were overran by the RSK or the VRS. Amongst the United States, France and the United Kingdom, there was division regarding how to protect the area.