Pro-Iran sources have flooded Twitter with lies -- likely to prevent war with the U.S.

In the week following the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, pro-Iranian disinformation has inundated Twitter, exaggerating the number of Americans injured by the Iranian counterattack on Jan. 8 and falsely claiming that US forces were retreating from Kuwait.

These fabrications are not intended to confuse an audience in the United States, or one around the globe — but rather an audience in Iran. Although the Iranian government has one of the world’s most active state-sponsored cybersecurity programs, the evidence is not yet clear who is behind the disinformation. But the goal, experts told BuzzFeed News, is to satisfy an unsettled Iranian public by making it believe its government responded harshly to the death of Soleimani, preventing the need for the country to escalate the conflict further.