Supporters of the Popular Mobilization Forces took to the streets of Baghdad celebrating the founding anniversary, at the same time many activists expressed their high dissatisfaction with the members of the Popular Mobilization Forces raising Iranian flags instead of the Iraqi flags, as the Popular Mobilization Forces are an Iraqi institution that was voted on in the Iraqi parliament during the war In addition to being financed financially and militarily by the Iraqi state, the Popular Mobilization Forces quickly controlled the loyalty of the Iranian government through its militias in Iraq and the Shiite Islamic parties loyal to Iran in the Iraqi parliament.