The Ceylon News

Sri Lankan troops have entered the last town held by Tamil Tiger separatists in the country's north, according to defence ministry officials.

Government forces were engaged in "intense fighting" as they battled their way into Puthukkudiyiruppu, the ministry said in a statement.

"Troops who entered the town found the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's (LTTE) high-tech satellite communication centre and met stiff resistance as they advanced into built-up areas," it said.

At least 13 Tigers were killed in the fighting, the ministry said, but did not mention if security forces suffered any casualties. The LTTE has made no comment.

The town was the "last objective" and the end of the war could be measured in days, not weeks, brigadier Shavendra Silva, a senior military officer, told the Reuters news agency earlier last week.

'Great danger'

Only a handful of small coastal villages that remain in the hands of the LTTE, according to the military.

Focus: Sri Lanka

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The army has driven the Tigers into a small area of jungle in the north-east over the past few weeks.

The offensive has raised alarm over the safety of tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the war zone.

John Holmes, the UN humanitarian chief, said on Saturday: "[Civilians] now face very great danger from fighting between the Sri Lankan government forces and the LTTE and there is strong evidence the LTTE are preventing them from leaving."

Escalating fighting

The International Committee of the Red Cross said last month hundreds of civilians had died in the fighting.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been trapped in the conflict zone [Reuters]

Thousands more have been displaced.

The LTTE is fighting for a separate Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka's north, claiming Tamils have suffered years of discrimination by the country's Sinhalese majority.

More than 70,000 people have been killed in the fighting since Sri Lanka's civil war began in 1983.