Saudi-led airstrikes hit UNESCO world heritage site in Yemen

Saudi-led air strikes targeting Shia rebels and allied forces destroyed a section of the Old City of the capital, Sanaa, a UNESCO world heritage site, killing at least five civilians and burying others under rubble.

The strikes, which started in the early hours of the morning, destroyed five houses and damaged several other buildings, Yemen's state news agency Saba said Friday.

The Old City has been inhabited for nearly 3,000 years and has a high density of unique mud-brick tower houses, labyrinthine souqs, mosques and bathhouses.

For more than 11 weeks, an Arab military grouping led by Saudi Arabia has been bombing the Houthis, now the politically dominant group in Yemen, in a bid to restore the exiled president to power and support local fighters in battlefields nationwide.

U.N.-sponsored talks are due to be held in Geneva on Sunday to try to find a solution to the crisis which has left 80 percent of the population in need of some form of humanitarian aid.

Wire services