The Datta Khel airstrike was an American airstrike carried out on 17 March 2011 in

Datta Khel Datakhel () or Datta Khel is a town in North Waziristan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is part of Datta Khel Tehsil of North Waziristan district. Overview and history Datakhel is located around 41 km South West of near by to ...

North Waziristan North Waziristan District ( ps, شمالي وزیرستان ولسوالۍ, ur, ) is a district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. It is the northern part of Waziristan, a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanist ...

that killed 44 people and led to widespread condemnation in

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. Sherabat Khan Wazir, a top commander of

Hafiz Gul Bahadur Hafiz Gul Bahadur (born c.1961) is the leader of a Pakistani Taliban faction based in North Waziristan. Upon the formation of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in December 2007, he was announced as the militant group's overall ''naib amir'' un ...

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...

faction, was killed in the strike, and in response Bahadur threatened to end the peace deal struck with the Pakistani government almost four years earlier. The airstrike was part of a long series of

drone attacks in Pakistan Between 2004 and 2018, the United States government attacked thousands of targets in northwest Pakistan using unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) operated by the United States Air Force under the operational control of the Central Intelligence ...

carried out by the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

and

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

military. It occurred just two days after ''

diyya ''Diya'' ( ar, دية; plural ''diyāt'', ar, ديات) in Islamic law, is the financial compensation paid to the victim or heirs of a victim in the cases of murder, bodily harm or property damage by mistake. It is an alternative punishment to ' ...

'', a form of compensation paid to a victim's family under

Islamic law Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the ...

, was paid for the release of U.S. CIA operative Raymond Allen Davis, signaling a resumption of U.S. activity after a several week hiatus while Davis' pardon on murder charges was being negotiated.

Attack

According to Pakistani intelligence officials, the attack targeted a compound where several dozen people believed to be

militants linked to Hafiz Gul Bahadur were meeting. On 17 March 2011, two or three missiles were fired within three minutes, killing at least 44 people and injuring around fifteen others. A security official in

Peshawar Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...

said that the building that was attacked was used as a training location and meeting place for militants. A car that was transporting additional suspected militants near the location of the primary target was also fired upon. Of those killed, a Pakistani security official said that eleven Taliban personnel were killed in the attack, while the remainder were civilians. According to a local tribesman, however, the suspected militants were actually a group of tribal elders from a nearby village who were having a business meeting. The meeting was said to be regarding the disputed sale of a

chromite Chromite is a crystalline mineral composed primarily of iron(II) oxide and chromium(III) oxide compounds. It can be represented by the chemical formula of FeCr2O4. It is an oxide mineral belonging to the spinel group. The element magnesium can s ...

mine in the area. The tribesman said that a commander loyal to Bahadur, Sharabat Khan, was present, but only because he was also a tribal elder. Khan was reported to have been killed in the attack. After the attack the Taliban faction led by Hafiz Gul Bahadur threatened to cancel the peace deal with Pakistani government to protest the governments inability to halt drone attacks.

Reaction

General

Ashfaq Parvez Kayani General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani (Urdu: ; born 20 April 1952), is a retired four-star general of the Pakistan Army who served as the 8th Chief of Army Staff , being appointed on 29 November 2007 after his predecessor Pervez Musharraf retired fro ...

, the Chief of Army Staff of

Pakistan Army The Pakistan Army (, ) is the Army, land service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The roots of its modern existence trace back to the British Indian Army that ceased to exist following the partition of India, Partition of British India, wh ...

, issued a statement saying that the attack was "in complete violation of human rights" and that "such aggression against people of Pakistan is unjustified and intolerable under any circumstances." Prime Minister

Yousaf Raza Gillani Yusuf Raza Gilani (Urdu: ; born 9 June 1952), is a Pakistani politician who served as 18th Prime Minister of Pakistan from 25 March 2008, until his retroactive disqualification and ouster by the Supreme Court of Pakistan on 26 April 2012. He ...

condemned the attack, saying that it would only strengthen the hands of militants. The governor of

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ps, خېبر پښتونخوا; Urdu, Hindko: خیبر پختونخوا) commonly abbreviated as KP or KPK, is one of the Administrative units of Pakistan, four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, ...

Syed Masood Kausar Masood Kausar is a Pakistani politician who was 28th Governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He held many senior government positions including; Speaker of the Assembly, Minister for Communications, Deputy Leader of Opposition in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa pro ...

, also strongly condemned the attack, saying that civilians and policemen were killed. Pakistan foreign secretary

Salman Bashir Salman Bashir ( ur, سلمان بشیر ) (born 4 March 1952) is a Pakistani diplomat who served as the Foreign Secretary of Pakistan and as the High Commissioner of Pakistan to India.Cameron Munter Cameron Munter (born 1954) is a retired diplomat, academic, and executive who now works as a global consultant. He was President and CEO of the EastWest Institute (EWI) in New York from 2015 to 2019, directing conflict resolution projects in Rus ...

, for an explanation and an apology. After the attack, Pakistan said it would not attend talks with the United States on 26 March 2011 in Brussels to discuss the future of Afghanistan. The foreign ministry of Pakistan stated that " is evident that the fundamentals of our relations need to be revisited… Pakistan should not be taken for granted nor treated as a

client state A client state, in international relations, is a state that is economically, politically, and/or militarily subordinate to another more powerful state (called the "controlling state"). A client state may variously be described as satellite state, ...

." The US embassy in Pakistan refused to comment, saying it was not aware that such talks had been proposed. The attack came shortly after CIA contractor Raymond Allen Davis, who had been arrested on charges of killing two people in January, was released, and protests against his release were expected to intensify after the

drone strike Drone warfare is a form of aerial warfare using unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV) or weaponized commercial unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). The United States, United Kingdom, Israel, China, South Korea, Iran, Italy, France, India, Pakista ...

Protests

Thousands of Pakistani protesters took to the street following the attack. The US Embassy in Islamabad and consulates in

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former cap ...

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...

and

were closed due to security concerns. Thousands of protesters gathered in the capital

Islamabad Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital T ...

, chanting " iends of the US are traitors", " wn with America" and " ng Zardari." In

Miranshah Mīrānshāh (Pashto and ur, ) or Mīrāmshāh () is a small town that is the administrative headquarters of North Waziristan District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Miranshah lies on the banks of the Tochi River in a wide valley surr ...

more than a thousand locals collected and demanded compensation for the dead and an immediate stop to the drone attacks.

Military

After the attack, the

Pakistani Air Force , "Be it deserts or seas; all lie under our wings" (traditional) , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = ...

increased air patrols of the northwestern tribal areas in Pakistan. It also cancelled holidays and breaks for officials in the region.

References

{{War on Terrorism Conflicts in 2011 Airstrikes of the insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 2011 in Pakistan CIA activities in Pakistan Attacks in Pakistan in 2011 March 2011 events in Pakistan

Attack

Reaction

Protests

Military

See also

References