A perverse tapestry of artwork left behind by ISIS has been slowly erased as Mosul citizens band together to clean up their liberated city.
Since 2014 Islamic State militants have ruthlessly maintained control of Mosul with an iron fist while using the city's frightened inhabitants as human shields against government forces.
The extremists imposed a radical version of Islam in Mosul after annexing Iraq’s second biggest city as its de facto capital.
The terrorist group banned cigarettes, televisions and radios, and forced men to grow beards and women to cover from head to toe.
After two years the city is now free, but the marks of its captors still remain in the form of gruesome murals creating a constant reminder of the nightmare subjugation hundreds of people were forced to endure.
More than 150000 people managed fled the city during the siege.
After a bloody battle to reclaim the Mosul inhabitants have now begun to return and band together armed with paint, wheelbarrows and shovels as they commence a massive clean-up.
Many of the murals showing armed ISIS soldiers painted on bullet ridden walls are already being masked with coats of white paint.
Men and women have started scouring the streets with wheelbarrows and shovels as they remove debris and dozens of rotting jihadi corpses let behind after the onslaught.
Video taken from inside Mosul's walls shows children kicking and hitting ISIS derived artworks.
Shops that were long ago shuttered and sealed have begun to reopen as men, women and children start to get on with their lives.
While ISIS's evacuation is a godsend for many of the city's residents, others face uncertain futures.
When Islamic State militants swept into Mosul in 2014, they wandered into Manaf Younes' billiards hall and declared it un-Islamic, taking away his billiard balls with a stern warning.
A hall that was often packed with players until midnight was suddenly abandoned. Photographs of awards that made Younes proud gathered dust for two years and the billiard tables remained covered up.
"I spent forty years building this club, and after these two years, I am on the brink of bankruptcy, and I am in debt. The landlord needs money, and all this needs to be renovated," said Younes, picking up a trophy that reminded him of the old days.
With Reuters