As the Ottoman forces counter-attacked, Townshend was forced to pull back as his forces were outnumbered. He blamed his withdrawal on his Indian troops, whom he claimed had pulled back without permission and were too stupid to operate on their own and needed whites to tell them what to do, and asserted that too many British officers had been killed in the battle and so the Indians had retreated. After a hard day's fighting he ordered what was left of his division to dig in while Nureddin Pasha ordered his men to pull back. The next day, Nureddin Pasha ordered a general attack with the aim of destroying the Anglo-Indian force.