Pakistan army says Taliban on run

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Oct. 25 (UPI) -- Taliban fighters battling Pakistani troops in South Waziristan could target schools, markets and mosques, military officials warned Sunday.

"They have caused a great damage in the past and more is possible," Qamar Zaman Kaira, Pakistan's information minister, was quoted as saying by Dawn.

Attacks on schools and other "soft targets" would be revenge for the army's capture of Kotkai, the headquarters of Hakimullah Mehsud, who became Taliban chief when his father, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed this year, Kaira told a Sunday news conference.

Calling the Taliban "terrorists on the run," Kaira said Pakistan's army killed 21 Taliban members Friday and Saturday, while at least six Pakistani security personnel had died and another eight were wounded during those two days.

At the same news conference, army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas Sunday urged the United States to refrain from drone attacks on South Waziristan.

"We would not like to see any kind of support or interference including drone attacks from outside during the ongoing operation," Abbas said.