TEHRAN, June 15: Iran’s Border Guards have shot down 44 Israeli drones and small aircraft in the past 48 hours, according to a statement released on Sunday by Brigadier General Ahmad Goudarzi, Commander of Iran's Border Guards.

Goudarzi, quoted by Iranian state media, said the aircraft were detected and destroyed as they attempted to breach Iranian airspace amid intensified hostilities in the region.

"Following the airstrikes launched by the Israeli occupation forces inside Iranian territories during the past 48 hours, 44 drones and small aircraft belonging to this entity were detected and destroyed while trying to enter the country's airspace," the statement read.

Tehran and several other Iranian cities have come under large-scale aerial attacks by Israeli forces since early Friday. The strikes, described by Iranian officials as extensive and coordinated, have led to significant casualties and damage.

Iran confirmed the deaths of several high-ranking officials in the attacks, including Major General Mohammad Baqeri, Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces; IRGC Commander Hossein Salami; and other senior commanders of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The strikes also claimed the lives of multiple nuclear scientists and civilians, and targeted key nuclear sites and residential areas.

Among the others killed were Fereydoun Abbasi, former head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran; Mohammad Mehdi Tehranji, nuclear scientist and president of Islamic Azad University; Gholamreza Rashid, commander of the IRGC’s Khatam al-Anbia headquarters; and Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the Revolutionary Guard Air Force.

The recent escalation marks one of the deadliest episodes in the ongoing tensions between Iran and Israel, with both sides sustaining and inflicting considerable losses.