Upon receiving orders for a 90-day extension of their one-year deployment in April 2004, 1st Battalion moved to the south of Baghdad to the ancient city of Karbala, which had recently fallen to the control of members of the Mahdi Army, followers of the radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. After several days of shaping operations, the battalion captured an abandoned hotel in the center of the city and began using it as a strong point from which to conduct operations. Over the next ten days, the battalion engaged in some of the most intense urban warfare experienced by a single unit of the US Army since World War II. After driving the remnants of the Mahdi Army from Karbala, the BN then engaged in several weeks of civil-military operations before returning to Baghdad to prepare for the trip home to Germany. 1st Battalion, 37th Armored was awarded their second Presidential Unit Citation for their actions in Karbala.