Its commander, Shereef Bey, ordered all the people massacred, including the women and children to demoralize the British and Arab forces in pursuit of the Turkish army.[3] The British commander leading the Arab forces, T. E. Lawrence, arrived in the area shortly after the massacre and witnessed bodies mutilated and the majority of the town in ruins.[4] In retaliation for the massacre, Lawrence's troops attacked the withdrawing Turkish columns, and for the first time in the war ordered his men to take no prisoners.[2] Around 250 German and Austrian soldiers traveling with the Ottoman troops that had been captured that day were summarily executed as they were gunned down by Lawrence's enraged men with machine guns.[2]