Drone Strikes on a Jirga in Datta Khel

On the morning of 16 March 2011, a jirga was convened at Datta Khel in North Waziristan, to debate the ownership of a local chromite mine. A jirga is a traditional community gathering that meets to resolve disputes—in this case, the dispute was over payment for mining rights. The meeting took place in an open field near the Datta Khel bazaar, and lasted two days. It consisted of two adjacent circles of men seated on the ground. On the first day of the meeting, a missile fired from a US drone killed 4 or 5 people elsewhere in the vicinity of Datta Khel. -FA