Lanka soldiers patrol near Thoppigala, 240 km northeast of Colombo. (AP)

Thoppigala (Sri Lanka), July 9 (Reuters): Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers will lose their last foothold in the island’s restive east within days after troops captured a strategic plateau overnight, the ground commander in the area said today.

The military has captured vast swathes of territory from the Tigers in the east in recent months and has killed hundreds of rebel fighters since the operation to capture the landlocked area called Thoppigala in early February, the commander said.

“A total of 444 LTTE cadres have been killed during the operation,” the ground commander said, asking not to be named in line with policy. “We have information that 327 cadres have been injured.

“Now there are only around 200 cadres in the area. We will clear the whole area within a few days.”

The area of Thoppigala in the eastern district of Batticaloa has been in Tiger hands since the mid-1990s.

He said troops captured the “Tora Bora” plateau in Thoppigala yesterday. A total of 20 soldiers and two officers were killed during the months-long operation and 206 soldiers wounded, he said.

There was no independent confirmation of the death toll, and the Tigers were not immediately available for comment. Analysts say both the military and Tigers tend to overstate enemy losses and downplay their own.

A Reuters witness saw bunker lines captured from the Tigers in Thoppigala. Troops were clearing anti-personnel mines and booby-traps laid by rebels in the area.

The government says it is aiming to hold local government elections in the east by the end of the year in a bid to cement a civilian administration that would hamper any rebel attempt to regain the area.

The Tigers control a large section of the island’s far north and are fighting for an independent state in the north and east.