After the fall of Igueriben on July 22, the rebels attacked the Spanish military camp. Silvestre, who had been acting more and more irrationally since the previous setbacks, ordered Major Julio Benitez to break out, which led to Benitez and most of his men being hacked to death by the Moroccan tribesmen, who rarely gave the Spanish much mercy. Only 11 survivors of Igueriben managed to reach the fort at Annual, and 9 of them died within hours of heat exhaustion. Then, Silvestre fell to pieces, chewed obsessively at his mustache and talked gibberish to himself as he paced back and forth, wondering what he should do. Matters were decided for Silvestre as Krim decided to follow up his victory at Igueriben by besieging the Annual fortress, and a few hours later, his tribesmen had surrounded Annual. At that point, a panic-stricken Silvestre, who having previously underestimated Krim now swung to the other extreme and called a council of war to announce he was ordering a general retreat back to the coast. Silvestre sent his last message on the radio to Madrid at about 4:55 a.m. that he would start a retreat to the coast later that morning. Silvestre failed to organize an orderly retreat, not least because for reasons of "machismo", he was unwilling to admit to his men that they would be about to retreat.