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Force US agents in desert to break up (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

fragment

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'break up' is the definition.
(synonyms)

'force us agents in desert' is the wordplay.
'force us' becomes 'f' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'agents' becomes 'gmen' (G-Man can mean a US federal agent).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'desert' becomes 'rat' (abandon treacherously).
'gmen' placed within 'rat' is 'ragment'.
'f'+'ragment'='FRAGMENT'

'to' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for fragment that I've seen before include "Broken-off piece" , "Small portion" , "Piece broken off something else" , "Come to pieces" , "Bit" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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