Colonels' superiors tidied up debris surrounding Latvian capital (10)

I believe the answer is:

brigadiers

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'colonels' superiors' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both people as well as being plural nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I don't see?

'tidied up debris surrounding latvian capital' is the wordplay.
'tidied up' is an anagram indicator.
'surrounding' indicates putting letters inside.
'latvian capital' becomes 'riga' (capital of Latvia).
'debris' with letters rearranged gives 'bdiers'.
'bdiers' placed around 'riga' is 'BRIGADIERS'.

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I've seen this clue in The Everyman puzzle in The Observer.

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