With an Iraqi flag draped over his shoulders, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi greeted soldiers and waved to cheering crowds in Mosul.
He said he was there to celebrate what he called the city's full "liberation" and praised the efforts of security forces in the fierce battle that has taken nearly nine months.
After living under IS control for nearly three years, this resident has expressed happiness it is over.
"In this occasion, we congratulate every Iraqi mother and our brave sons, who were fighting for the sake of this country, and we congratulate our brothers and sisters in Mosul for the liberation."
The government had announced its liberation of eastern Mosul in January, but ridding the city of the remaining parts of IS proved more challenging.
The ultimate victory in Iraq's third-largest city has come at an enormous cost, with thousands of civilians killed in the fighting.
Many were shot trying to flee the city, while hundreds of others have allegedly been killed by coalition air strikes.
A humanitarian crisis still remains, and, as another resident points out, the city itself has been virtually decimated.
"Now we want reconstruction, we want services. We want contractors to come to Mosul. They have to bring in services and employ the people here. Everyone here is jobless. That's what we want, reconstruction and to rebuild the city."
The fight to defeat IS, also known as ISIL or ISIS, in the Syrian stronghold of Raqqa continues.
But former Jordanian air force general Manmon Abu Nour says the fall of Mosul is not the end of IS in Iraq either.
"ISIL as a geopolitical entity now is almost finished in Mosul, but it's still there in Iraq. Of course, ISIL, they will go to Tal Afar, you've got Sinjar, you've got western Anbar ... they're still there, in Rawa, and they're still in the mountains. This will take a long time. It's very difficult to end such a ... Hawija, also, is having a hard time there."
Sally Becker heads a charity called Road to Peace that is helping children get access to treatment in war zones.
Speaking to the BBC, she has compared the situation in Mosul to her experience in the Bosnian city of Mostar during the Balkan wars of the early 1990s.
"It's the worst battle I've ever seen, it's the worst devastation that I've ever seen, and the state of the people, because they've been so long under siege ... You know, places like Mostar were bad when I went in, because they'd been besieged for three months. Of course here, they've been two or three years living under ISIS, and it really shows. It shows in their faces, their eyes, their clothing. It shows in the way they walk. Everything."
She says she fears the long-term effects and trauma on the children.
"I had children in the ambulance who were completely oblivious to the fact that their mother was screaming in the back with a bullet in her leg, because they've obviously been through so much they don't really feel now. They're so traumatised, they don't think. They're just looking straight ahead with blank eyes. It's most strange. And God knows how many years these people are going to be affected by what's happened."
