In November 1915, Nureddin Bey stopped Major General Charles Vere Ferrers Townshend's 6th Poona Infantry Division of British Indian Army at the Battle of Ctesiphon, and then pursued his retreating opponents to the town of Kut. Several attacks failed to take the town, and he settled down to a siege which ended in a British surrender. German Generalfeldmarschall Colmar von der Goltz arrived at Baghdad on 21 December 1915, changed the name of the Command as the Iraq Army ("Irak Ordusu"), inspected his positions and later left to start an invasion of Persia. On 20 January 1916, Enver Pasha, Ottoman Minister of War, replaced Nureddin Bey with Colonel Halil Bey and Nureddin Bey was appointed to the commander of the IX Corps and the provisional commander of the Third Army.