CIMIC-House was the British Army-led Multi-National Division (South-East)'s centre of Civil-Military Co-operation activities in the Iraqi town of Al Amarah. It was situated in the former residence of the Ba'ath Party governor of Maysan province. Determined to take the strong point, militia of the Shia Mahdi Army launched sustained attacks on the British positions at CIMIC House and the neighbouring Pink Palace, the seat of local government, beginning on 5 August 2004. Al Amarah was garrisoned by fewer than 90 Soldiers from Y Company of the 1st Battalion, The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment (including TA elements from 52nd Lowland Regiment), 60 from the Royal Welch Fusiliers, and two troops of soldiers from A squadron the Queens Royal Lancers (QRL). These units were part of the 1st Mechanised Brigade on TELIC IV. The forces in Amarah were isolated some from the main Battle Group in Abu Naji, and dependent on convoys for resupply. During the siege, they faced an estimated 500 militia who launched a total of 86 assaults on the compound over the next 23 days, ranging from section strength up to a series of company-level assaults with 100-plus fighters. Incoming fire from the Mahdi Army included 595 mortar rounds from 230 different bombardments, direct hits with 57 rocket-propelled grenades and six 107 mm rockets plus 86 ground assaults on CIMIC (Civil-Military Co-operation) House itself. Y Company, 1 PWRR, based at CIMIC House, became the most attacked company in the entire Iraqi theatre of operations. In defending the compound, the British fired 33,000 rounds, and many Challenger 2, Warrior, and High Explosive 81mm Mortar shells and managed to persuade the US Air Force to drop a precision laser-guided 500 lb bomb onto enemy mortar positions in open ground right in the middle of a built up-city, defending their positions in trying to repulse the Mahdi Army in what has been described by Y Company's Sergeant Dan Mill's book "Sniper One" as "the longest continuous action fought by the British Army since the Korean War 50 years ago". It was also the "lengthiest defensive stand since World War II". Fighting reached a peak between 5 and 25 August when the intensity was such that armoured convoys were unable to reach the base to resupply the British, although none of the waves of infantry attacks by the Mahdi Army got within 30 metres of the British lines. During this time, commanding