On April 3, 2004, coinciding with the Ashura holiday, Iraqi insurgents supporting Shiite leader Muktada As-Sadr initiated an uprising in the area controlled by Polish forces. Polish troops, alongside Bulgarian soldiers and Iraqi police, were assigned the mission of protecting City Hall under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Grzegorz Kaliciak. This confrontation escalated into the most significant military engagement for Poland since World War II. Remarkably, no allied soldiers lost their lives, while approximately 80 insurgents were killed during the counter-offensive.