Why is Uncle Sam Supporting Warlords in Somalia?

Middle East Online reports:

Islamic militia and gunmen loyal to a US-backed warlord alliance fought pitched battles in the streets of the lawless Somali capital on Thursday as the death toll from five days of clashes soared....

Overnight violence claimed at least 17 lives as shelling of urban residential areas intensified and the two factions showed no sign of heeding widespread appeals for a truce....

Appeals and an offer of a truce from the Islamic clerics who control the militia were dismissed by the warlord-led Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT)....

An official of Mogadishu's increasingly influential courts... placed the blame squarely on the alliance, which was formed in February with US support....

US officials have said the group has received US money... Last week, the State Department acknowledged that the United States was working with "responsible individuals" in Somalia to prevent "terror taking root in the Horn of Africa."