DUBAI, June 16 - The standoff between Israel and Iran continued for a third day. Despite calls for a ceasefire, both countries launched missile attacks on each other and neither is ready to back down. Iran said Israel attacked its oil refineries, killed the intelligence chief of its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and two other generals and targeted populated centers with airstrikes. The attacks by Israel, which began on Friday, have so far killed 224 people. Officials said the number of military personnel and civilians injured in the attacks is about 1,277.
Israel, which has fired its missiles at Iran's rapidly expanding nuclear program and military leadership, said Iran fired more than 270 missiles on Friday. Of these, 22 were missiles that breached the country’s sophisticated multi-layered air defenses and wreaked havoc in residential suburbs. The attacks killed 14 people and injured 340 others.
In a sign of how far Israel could go in this war, a US official told this news agency that President Donald Trump had rejected an Israeli plan to assassinate Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Khamenei is Iran’s supreme leader, with final say on all major policies. He serves as commander-in-chief of the armed forces and controls the powerful Revolutionary Guard.
Israel, the Middle East’s sole, but undeclared, nuclear-armed state, has said the attack was to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. The latest round of talks between the United States and Iran on the future of Tehran's nuclear program was scheduled for Sunday in Oman, but was canceled after the Israeli strike.
Iran has converted metro stations and mosques into shelters to protect itself from attacks. Israel said its strikes on Sunday targeted Iran's defense ministry, missile-launch sites and factories that make air defense components. Iran also admitted that Israel had killed other top generals, including Revolutionary Guard intelligence chief General Mohammad Kazemi.
Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh and other Iranian diplomats shared photos of foreign ministry offices and a library that had been destroyed in the shelling. Iranian state TV has broadcast footage of residential buildings in Tehran destroyed by Israeli missiles, showing men and women carrying children covered in dust and blood. Iranian Health Ministry spokesman Hossein Karmanpour said that 90 percent of the 224 people killed as of Sunday were civilians. 
The Washington-based Human Rights Activists group has put the death toll in Iran from the Israeli strikes much higher. The group said at least 406 people were killed and 654 others were wounded in the Israeli strikes. State TV reported that metro stations and mosques had been converted into bomb shelters since Sunday night. Tehran residents said long lines formed at gas stations as families fled the city. 
Traffic police closed several roads outside the city to control the crowds. On state TV, energy officials tried to reassure panicked people that there was no shortage of gasoline despite the long lines.