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interviewed several eyewitnesses (with a translator of course) and here is the story as told by Amhirich Omar,
a Berber who was camping in the area. "Omar was out tending his camels when at about 4 in the afternoon on
Sunday February 10, 2002, he saw a light in the sky to the west. It rapidly grew very bright but was not moving
(it was coming at him strait on). Then quickly the object exploded into many pieces, and passed overhead leaving
a trail of dark smoke. A moment later the explosions like thunder were very loud. He thought that it was a military
jet that had been shot down. He saw the pieces fall to the ground about 3 kilometers from where he was. He told his
children to guard the animals and he took his brother to go find the crashed airplane. (The area is on the disputed
Morocco/Algeria border, and military is common there. No one is allowed there except the military and Berbers who
have rights to pass about anywhere.) When they arrived at the area where he saw the pieces fall, he found burned
black stones everywhere, and many broken pieces. They landed in a rocky area so many shattered when they hit the
ground. He took some and went back to the camp. Many of the people there knew that they were meteorites, as it is
a common business in that area, so the next day many people went to collect the stones. The meteorite pieces were
in a line of about 5 or 6 kilometers, the small stones were all in one large area, and the larger pieces spread out
far between each one. They crossed the border into Algeria, so the smaller pieces were in Morocco, and the larger ones
in Algeria! At first a few pieces went to Rissani to be sold, but then there was little interest so the rest were kept
by the Berbers. The fall was seen by many people in different towns, it passed north of Rissani from the Northwest to
the Southeast. The date was listed previously as 11 or 12 Feb, but it is confirmed to be afternoon on Feb 10 as this
is Sunday and that is market day in Rissani, so many Berbers had gone to the market there that day.
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