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Nearly 25,000 Japanese troops will start a massive new search for bodies today along the Pacific coast where some 12,000 people are still missing after the earthquake and tsunami, the military said. Some US forces will join the 24,800 soldiers and members of Japan's Coast Guard and police for the third search since the disaster struck on March 11, devastating towns along the northeast. "They will broadly cover the Pacific coast, areas around major river mouths and other tsunami-hit places," said a spokesman for Japan's Joint Staff. In the past two major operations they found 438 bodies, the defense ministry said. More than 14,000 people were killed in the disaster and some 12,000 are still missing. In a separate operation launched last Monday, some 2,500 Japanese troops have been searching for bodies within the 30-kilometer evacuation zone around the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. Officials from the local livestock department will also enter the 20-kilometer no-go zone around the plant to inspect the condition of the thousands of cattle, pigs and other animals abandoned as farmers fled. "We haven't had any idea what it is like in the area now. This will be the first time we've entered the zone," said an official of Fukushima prefecture's livestock department. Some animal rights activists who have entered the area have said there are a considerable number of cattle and other livestock dying. AFP |
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