Some of the posts expressed anti-American sentiment, recounting how America occupied Iraq in 2003 and insisting that those who resisted foreign aggression against Iraq should be showered with eternal praise. According to the posts, former U.S. President George W. Bush was a criminal and the emergence of terrorist groups in the region was revenge for what the United States did to Iraq.

The description accompanying one of the photos claimed that the pictured individual had created paramilitary groups after the American invasion of Iraq in 2003 and attacked strategic American assets in different parts of the world, generating big losses for the United States. Another post was devoted to former Iraqi Minister of Defense Sultan Hashem Ahmed, who was in office during the U.S.-led coalition’s advance on Baghdad International Airport on April 3, 2003. The post also claimed that the Iraqi Army killed 2,000 elite American forces of the 101st Airborne Division during the operation. It also claimed that the Iraqi Army deployed mines along the landing runway, blowing up several American planes as they landed. The same posts also appeared on the Bird of Peace page.

Brave Iraqi Army (top right and left, as indicated by the green boxes) and Bird of Peace (bottom right and left, blue boxes) posted the same pictures and short stories about people who fought against the United States. (Source: Brave Iraqi Army/Facebook; Bird of Peace/Facebook)

The majority of posts on both pages praised Saddam Hussein, including by suggesting that Saddam’s reaction to news of his impending execution was one of laughter, which was supposedly proof of his courage and masculinity; that those closest to him betrayed him and the new ruling class in Iraq cannot even compare to him; and that Saddam was a more humane leader than many contemporary leaders.

Brave Iraqi Army (top right and left) and Bird of Peace (bottom right and left) pages posted pictures and short stories about Saddam Hussein, presenting him in a positive light. (Source: Brave Iraqi Army/Facebook; Bird of Peace/Facebook)

The identical posts, as well as the link to the same off-platform website in their respective About sections, suggested that the Brave Iraqi Army page and the Bird of Peace page may have either shared page administrators or coordinated with one another.

Coordinated behavior between Brave Iraqi Army and Bird of Peace

The Brave Iraqi Army page published its first army-related post on June 29, 2018; it was later shared by Bird of Peace.

The Brave Iraqi Army (left) published its first post with Iraqi military-related content on June 29, 2018, which was reposted by Bird of Peace (right) the same day. Remarkably, Brave Iraqi Army page was still using “I love yo” name by that time. (Source: Brave Iraqi Army/Facebook; Bird of Peace/Facebook)

From that time forward, Brave Iraqi Army focused on military-related content and posts on the two pages overlapped very often, with Bird of Peace almost always reposting the other’s posts and, less completely though still frequently, vice versa. Considering the above, these two pages appeared to be connected by June 2018, possibly with the Bird of Peace administrators taking over the Brave Iraqi Army page or by close coordination between the two pages’ administrators.

A CrowdTangle analysis showed that Bird of Peace page was the more active of the two, publishing many more posts per month on average than Brave Iraqi Army.

Although the Brave Iraqi Army page (left) was created two years earlier than the Bird of Peace page (right), the latter registered almost 11 times more engagement than the former. (Source: Brave Iraqi Army/Facebook, left; Bird of Peace/Facebook, right via CrowdTangle)

Al-Abbas News Network page

An additional army-related page, “Al-Abbas News Network,” was created in April 2015, with the most recent post to the page appearing in October 2017. The page changed its name twice, first from “Al-Abbas News Network” to “Holy Crowd News Network” on May 11, 2016, before reverting back two days later. The page was managed by 10 people, some of whom were based in Iraq, Egypt, and Belgium.

Al-Abbas News Network changed its name twice and had 10 page managers, including seven in Iraq and one each in Belgium and Egypt. (Source: Al-Abbas News Network/Facebook)

Al-Abbas News Network promoted the Abbas Combat Division, a Shia militia group that emerged to counter the Islamic State and Sunni Arab rebel groups in Iraq. According to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the Abbas Combat Division represents an effective volunteer force in Iraq against the Islamic State. The Al-Abbas News Network page used to post regular updates about Islamic State activities in Iraq and the combat division’s efforts to deter them. The page also previously accused the United States of providing chemical weapons to the Islamic State to attack a members of Abbas Combat Division in the Iraqi city of Samarra. The administrators of the page subsequently asked their followers to declare media jihad against the Islamic State.

Al-Abbas News Network page primarily provided updates on how the Abbas Combat Division had expelled the Islamic State from certain regions in Iraq.Some posts also contained anti-American messages. (Source: Al-Abbas News Network/Facebook)

Pushing anti-government and anti-U.S. content

The other assets in the removed set included pages that focused on sharing anti-Iraqi government and anti-U.S. content in addition to amplifying posts from the cohort of army-related pages.

The page “Clean Brotherhood” shared images of what it claimed to be Anbar Province in western Iraq and stated that the local government did not make an effort to combat poverty in the region. The page also claimed that the governor of Anbar did not keep his election promises and accused the government of stealing fuel and selling it on the black market.