When the city was conquered and a garrison was left there.
The Babylonian objective was apparently to establish a foothold
west of the Euphrates as the beginning of a future activity beyond the river,
and to threaten the Egyptian garrison that was stationed at Carchemish.
The Babylonian threat was clear, and
the Egyptian reaction was not long to in coming.
During the spring or early summer of 606 BCE,
an Egyptian force set out for Kimuhu and laid siege to it for four months.
According to the Babylonian chronicle, the city fell to the Egyptians, and
the Babylonian garrison that had been there was defeated.
Nabopolassar didn't come to aid of his army, perhaps because of
the great danger involved both in crossing the Euphrates with a large army, and
in a battle with Egyptians who were located on the western bank of the river.
It was only in the month of Tasritu, Tishrei, September or October 606 BCE,
that the Babylonians set out again toward the middle Euphrates and
camped in the city of Quramati, which is south of Kimuhu and east of the Euphrates.