Iraq military sweep condemed as 'needless escalation'

American and Iraqi troops pushing through a desolate area of Iraq’s Sunni Arab heartland yesterday rounded up dozens more suspected insurgents, including alleged killers of a television journalist, US and Iraqi officials said.

The three-day-old sweep through villages 60 miles (100 kilometres) north of Baghdad stirred growing unease among leading Sunnis. One called it a “needless escalation” at a time of difficult negotiations over forming a broad-based government representing all of Iraq’s communities.