Anglo-Egyptian Sudan shared a border with the AOI and on 4 July 1940, was invaded by an Italian force of about from Eritrea, which advanced on a railway junction at Kassala. The Italians forced the British garrison of of the SDF and some local police to retire after inflicting casualties of and for ten casualties of their own. The Italians also drove a platoon of No 3 Company, Eastern Arab Corps (EAC) of the SDF, from the small fort at Gallabat, just over the border from Metemma, about south of Kassala and took the villages of Qaysān, Kurmuk and Dumbode on the Blue Nile. From there the Italians ventured no further into Sudan owing to a lack of fuel and fortified Kassala with anti-tank defences, machine-gun posts and strongpoints, later establishing a brigade-strong garrison. The Italians were disappointed to find little anti-British sentiment among the Sudanese population.