The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) is an Iraqi state security service that Iran has infiltrated and uses to wield significant influence in Iraq. Iran’s proxy militias in Iraq have also established political wings that grant the militias political cover and enable them to pursue their political and military objectives as quasi-government institutions. Most PMF operations commanders are senior members of Iranian-backed militias such as Asaib Ahl al Haq and the Badr Organization. Some simultaneously command a PMF regional operational command and an individual Iranian-backed brigade within the PMF. Senior PMF leaders frequently execute operations without the approval of the Iraqi prime minister, who is ostensibly the commander-in-chief of all Iraqi security services. The PMF and its IRGC “advisers” conducted independent operations during the anti-ISIS campaign.