MOSUL, Iraq — As the Islamic State (IS) crumbled in western Mosul and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi traveled to Iraq's second largest city to proclaim its liberation on July 9, some Iraqis began to think about plans for reconstruction. The government moved to enforce security, and Mosul residents — able to breathe a bit — took steps toward returning to normalcy, though it will take some time to undo what IS has done.

It was during hours of nonstop dancing at a cousin's July 1 wedding that Riad could forget for awhile the image of his three-story house blowing up. IS had uploaded footage of it to the Internet. As a policeman for the state, Riad had been a target of the militant group. At the wedding, he blocked out the reality for one moment that he no longer had a house or a job with which to support his wife and two children.

Riad's cousin Ahmad is finally getting married. He and his fiancee had been separated for more than two years after he escaped to the nearby city of Erbil with his family. The couple kept in touch via cell phone.

The wedding celebration is taking place in the Sumer neighborhood of eastern Mosul, liberated earlier this year. Most of the guests — dancing, listening to music and smoking — are just basically having fun for the first time since that fateful day in June 2014 when IS entered the city in a blitzkrieg. After a few weeks of grace, the group implemented its oppressive policies, banning one thing after another. “That's why we are partying so hard!” Riad exclaimed, standing inside a doorway.