 The Byzantine forces, led by his father Stephen, were attempting to expel the Normans of the Kingdom of Sicily who held the city.Andronikos' father was killed during the siege in early 1149, dying in his son's arms.The French scholar Rodolphe Guilland erroneously placed Andronikos in partial command of an expedition to Cilicia against Raymond of Poitiers in 1144/45, but the Belgian historian Henri Grégoire determined that this was a different person, namely his uncle and namesake Andronikos Kontostephanos.