Only Tyre and Aradus could escape him.

But might not they also be brought into subjection by the naval forces which their sister cities, once occupied, might be compelled to furnish, and to man, or, at any rate, to assist in manning?
Might not the whole of Phoenicia be in this way absorbed into the empire?
The prospect was pleasing, and Shalmaneser set to work to convert the vision into a reality.

By his emissaries he stirred up the spirit of disaffection among the Tyrian subject towns, and succeeded in separating from Tyre, and drawing over to his own side, not only Sidon and Acre and their dependencies, but even the city of Palae-Tyrus itself,[14143] or the great town which had grown up opposite the island Tyre upon the mainland.

The island Tyre seems to have been left without support or ally, to fight her own battle singly.

Shalmaneser called upon his new friends to furnish him with a fleet, and they readily responded to the call, placing their ships at his disposal to the number of sixty, and supplying him further with eight hundred skilled oarsmen, not a sufficient number to dispense with Assyrian aid, but enough to furnish a nucleus of able seamen for each vessel.