TEL AVIV, April 3: Israel's hardline internal security minister on Saturday stood by premier Ariel Sharon's veiled threats to assassinate Yasser Arafat, dismissing US warnings against killing the Palestinian leader.

"The Americans cannot tell us not to launch targeted operations, while they themselves do so in Iraq and Afghanistan, sometimes against officials who have not touched a hair of an American soldier,"Tzahi Hanegbisaid.

"The two sons of Saddam Hussein were killed in a targeted operation, when it would have been enough to capture them," he added, referring to the elder sons of the former Iraqi leader shot dead in a gunbattle with US troops last year.

"It is important that those who send suicide bombers know that they no longer benefit from the least immunity as the prime minister said," Tzahi Hanegbi told public radio.

"If we have information at our disposal about (Palestinian) officials who either directly or indirectly encourage suicide attacks, they are not beyond harm," he added.-AFP