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Mistaken Entry Into Clan Dispute Led to U.S. Black Eye in Somalia

The land was little more than a patch of scrub outside the city. But this being Somalia — lawless, fractured and armed to the teeth — it was a patch of scrub that two of the country’s most powerful families were prepared to fight over. The fighting, which began Jan. 13, quickly took on wider significance because of the presence, at an airstrip just three miles away, of a small team of U.S. intelligence officials, according to Somalis knowledgeable about the events of that day. Full Story