Saudi-led airstrikes left at least five people dead in the Old City of Yemen's capital Sanaa, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, on Friday morning. Others are believed to be buried under the rubble in the ancient city, a popular tourist attraction and residential area.
The early morning airstrikes destroyed at least three houses, and also damaged and destabilized surrounding houses that are cemented to each other.
Images and video from Sanaa show civilians desperately digging through the rubble of residential buildings to search for survivors.
Photojournalist Alex Potter posted an Instagram video on Friday of the devastation in the capital. Many residents fled from their historic homes, and were staying elsewhere with relatives, Potter told Mashable.
"People are very angry and shocked. Old Sanaa is like a symbol for the country and always seen as untouchable; a very tight-knit community, as well," he said. "There were women passing out, men crying and outrage everywhere."
Yemeni men work to dig families out of their destroyed homes, after they collapsed from a Saudi airstrike in Old Sanaa. The hundreds of year old houses were part of the city which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. #unesco #house #video #sanaa #yemen #heritage #war #saudi A video posted by Alex Potter (@alexkpotter) on Jun 11, 2015 at 9:50pm PDT
UNESCO has condemned the attack on the Old City. The buildings damaged in the strikes are some of the most popular and historic tourist attractions in Sanaa.
“I am profoundly distressed by the loss of human lives, as well as by the damage inflicted on one of the world’s oldest jewels of Islamic urban landscape. I am shocked by the images of these magnificent many-storeyed tower-houses and serene gardens reduced to rubble," UNESCO director general Irina Bokova said in a statement.
"This heritage bears the soul of the Yemeni people, it is a symbol of a millennial history of knowledge and it belongs to all humankind."
Before and after photos of the site reveal the extent of the damage caused:
Before & after pics of KSA airstrikes on Old City Sana'a #Yemen UNESCO Heritage site via @alexkpotter @hamedalbukhiti pic.twitter.com/IoGMqWZs7N— Hisham Al-Omeisy (@omeisy) June 12, 2015
We visited the site of a Saudi strike in Sanaa's old city. At least six killed. Here's a juxtaposed tourism calendar. pic.twitter.com/jsYFR0j7QM— Matthieu Aikins (@mattaikins) June 12, 2015
The Saudi-led coalition began conducting airstrikes on March 26 against Shiite rebels and their allies in the Yemeni security forces who had overrun the capital.
Sanaa is not the only place where civilians are suffering. Amid ongoing shelling in the southern port city of Aden, hospitals are packed with casualties, according to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which is working in the area.
The NGO said it treated at least 100 civilians who were injured in airstrikes in the Al-Basateen residential area Wednesday. Some of them had been attending a funeral at the time they were injured, according to MSF.
"Hospitals in Aden are full — some are placing mattresses in front of their front gates to accommodate patients," Thierry Goffeau, MSF's project coordinator in Aden, said in a statement. "Daily fighting and airstrikes are still heavy, and we are concerned for patients who are unable to access care, while patients who are already in hospitals are too scared to leave."
On Friday, MSF said a member of its staff in Aden was killed in an airstrike.
Additional reporting by The Associated Press