A senior Israeli official has called for President Bashar Assad to be assassinated over alleged atrocities in the Syrian civil war.
Housing Minister Yoav Galant, a former general, said Tuesday: "As far as I am concerned it is time to assassinate Assad."
He said "when we finish with the tail of the snake we can reach the head of the snake sitting in Tehran and deal with it as well." Iran is a close ally of the Syrian government.
His remarks came a day after the United States accused Syria of mass killings at a prison near Damascus. Syria denied the allegations.
Galant says a "genocide" is underway in Syria, where an estimated 400,000 people have been killed and half the population has been displaced by a six-year-old civil war.
