On hearing of Nasr's death, Thimal felt vulnerable in Aleppo and left for Upper Mesopotamia to gather reinforcements.[39] His cousin Muqallid ibn Kamil was left in charge of Aleppo's citadel, while the city was put under their kinsman Khalifa ibn Jabir al-Kilabi.[39] A division of Anushtakin's troops besieged the city, and after a few days, Khalifa, with the blessing of Aleppo's inhabitants, opened the city's gates to the Fatimid army on 19 June.[39] Anushtakin arrived to Aleppo on 22 June and negotiated Muqallid's surrender of the citadel within a few days.[39] Afterward, he expelled all Mirdasid troops and officials from the city.[40] Thereafter, all city and provincial governors in Syria answered to Anushtakin in Damascus.[41] The Mirdasids continued to hold on to their Upper Mesopotamian possessions, namely the districts of Raqqa, Balis and al-Rahba.[42] Anushtakin's conquest of Aleppo marked the first and last time that all of Syria was under the control of a single Fatimid governor.[43] Al-Jarjara'i did not perceive Anushtakin's conquest of Aleppo, which he opposed, as a restoration of direct Fatimid rule, but rather as the beginning of the Fatimids' complete loss of Syria.[42] Nonetheless, the central government in Cairo conceded to Anushtakin and Caliph al-Mustansir granted him the governorship of Aleppo.[42]