The spokesman on Thursday strongly condemned the killing of civilians in an attack earlier in the day on a bus carrying Yemeni children to Quranic classes.

He expressed sympathy with families of the victims and called on international bodies and human rights organizations to prevent a recurrence of such massacres by the countries that have launched an aggression against Yemen.

Qassemi described such crimes as an indication of successive defeats of the Saudi-led coalition in the battlefields and deplored certain so-called advocates of human rights for providing support for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, saying they are partners in the coalition’s war crimes in Yemen and should be held accountable.

Warplanes of the Saudi-led military coalition on Thursday launched an airstrike on a bus carrying children in Yemen, killing more than 40 civilians and injuring more than 50 others.  

Ghani Nayeb, the head of a health department in the province of Sa’adah, said the death toll from the attack on the bus stood at 43 with 61 wounded.

The bus was reportedly carrying a group of students attending summer classes learning the Quran.

People of Yemen have been under massive attacks by the Saudi-led coalition for more than three years. Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies have been launching deadly airstrikes against Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement.

Thousands of Yemeni civilians have been killed in the Saudi-led aggression and most of the country’s infrastructures have been destroyed.