| Datta Khel airstrike | |
|---|---|
| Part of Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa | |
| Type | UAV-strike |
| Location | 33°09′N 70°26′E / 33.15°N 70.43°E |
| Target | Taliban fighters |
| Date | 17 March 2011 |
| Executed by |  CIA[1] |
| Casualties | 44 killed 10 injured |
  | |
The Datta Khel airstrike was an American airstrike carried out on 17 March 2011 in Datta Khel, North Waziristan that killed 44 people and led to widespread condemnation in Pakistan. Sherabat Khan Wazir, a top commander of Hafiz Gul Bahadur's Taliban 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.[2] The airstrike was part of a long series of drone attacks in Pakistan carried out by the CIA and United States military. It occurred just two days after diyya, a form of compensation paid to a victim's family under Islamic law, 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.