The next year (901), Abu al-Abbas Abdallah led the Aghlabid army against the remaining Byzantine enclaves in Sicily. While laying siege to Demona (in the northeast), Abu Abbas Abdallah heard rumors of the assembly of a Byzantine army in Calabria. Breaking off the siege, he rushed the Aghlabid army up to Messina, and ferried it across the straits, soon appearing before the walls of Reggio Calabria in June 901. Unprepared, the Byzantine garrison abandoned the city. The Aghlabids seized Reggio and put the wealthy city through a thorough sack.