COLOMBO, July 11 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's military said on Wednesday it had taken the last rebel stronghold in the island's restive east within days after troops captured a strategic plateau.

The military has taken vast swathes of territory from the Tigers in the east in recent months and says it has also killed hundreds of rebel fighters since the operation to capture the landlocked area called Thoppigala began in early February.

"Commandos and soldiers reached the Baron's Cap in Thoppigala a few hours ago," said a spokesman for the media centre for national security.

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

There was no independent confirmation of the death toll numbers, 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.

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

Analysts say that while the rebels have lost land that they controlled in the east, historically territory has often changed hands and they see no winner on the horizon to a conflict that has killed nearly 70,000 people since 1983.

AlertNet news is provided by