Moscow, January 28 (RHC)-- U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden, who has blown the lid on U.S. massive spying operations at home and abroad, says U.S. “government officials want to kill” him.

Snowden told a German television network that, “These people, and they are government officials, have said they would love to put a bullet in my head or poison me when I come out of the supermarket, and then watch as I die in the shower.”

The 30-minute interview with the German public broadcaster ARD TV was shot in Moscow and was broadcast from Berlin. Edward Snowden said that UPI (United Press International) news agency reported last week that two unnamed U.S. officials, “one from the Pentagon and the other a National Security Agency analyst, were quoted by BuzzFeed as saying they wanted to kill Snowden personally.”

After the explicit death threats, Snowden's Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena said the American whistleblower feared for his life. Kucherena had asked for better security for Snowden.

The Pentagon official, who was previously a U.S. Army Special Forces officer, was quoted in the BuzzFeed article, entitled “America's Spies Want Edward Snowden Dead”, as saying, “I would love to put a bullet in his head.”

Fearing for his life, Snowden fled the U.S. -- before disclosing the information on National Security Agency’s spying operations -- first to Hong Kong and then to Russia where he was granted temporary asylum last summer.

U.S. federal prosecutors have filed espionage charges against Snowden after the leaks. Snowden’s revelations have caused uproar in the U.S. regarding privacy rights. They have also angered many of Washington’s allies whose leaders were targeted by the NSA.