 Throughout 614 BCE the alliance of powers continued to make inroads into Assyria itself, although in 613 BCE the Assyrians somehow rallied to score a number of counterattacking victories over the Medes-Persians, Babylonians-Chaldeans and Scythians-Cimmerians.This led to a coalition of forces ranged against it to unite and launch a massive combined attack in 612 BCE, finally besieging and sacking Nineveh in late 612 BCE, killing Sin-shar-ishkun in the process.A new Assyrian king, Ashur-uballit II (612–605 BCE), took the crown amidst the house-to-house fighting in Nineveh, and refused a request to bow in vassalage to the rulers of the alliance.