COLOMBO, Feb 24: The Sri Lankan army entered on Tuesday in the twon of Puthukudiyiruppu, the last bastion of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE), in the island country.

Defence Ministry sources said that troops of the 58th Division had entered the town and fighting was going on when last reports came in.

“They are inside Puthukudiyiruppu and fighting to take control,” defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella, also a minister, said.

The army estimates that the Tigers have only 700 battle-fit cadre and all of them are now holed up in Puthukudiyiruppu and adjacent areas of about 52 square kilometres.

But refugees, who had poured into Vavuniya from Puthukudiyiruppu in the past month, told journalists that there were 15,000 men and women in the LTTE, dismissing the government’s estimate as unrealistic.

However, it is not known how many of the 15,000 LTTE men are trained fighters. The refugees said that forcible recruitment or conscription by the LTTE was the most important reason for the poor LTTE showing in the war.

With the Sri Lankan armed forces entrenched on all sides, including the sea, it is not clear what plans the LTTE leadership has for defending the bastion. By all accounts, Tiger chieftain Velupillai Prabhakaran is in Puthukudiruppu.

Only recently, he had a picture taken with pilots of the kamikaze mission over Colombo. The two aircraft which participated in the mission had taken off from Puthukudiiruppu, according to Sri Lankan military.

The fall of Puthukudiyiruppu and adjacent areas is expected in a few days and it would relieve tens of thousands of Tamil civilians trapped in the area.

The authorities are geared to receive and accommodate them, says the government representative in Vavuniya, S.B.M. Charles. Refugee villages are being set up over an area of 1000 acres.