Mosul residents relieved after death of ISIL leader al-Baghdadi

Al Jazeera spoke to some residents in Mosul, who say they are happy ISIL’s former leader is now gone.

Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, is still trying to rebuild after being virtually torn apart during the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) and the battle to retake it.

ISIL’s ideology fundamentally changed life in Mosul – with its members enforcing a strict and repressive code of conduct on the people who lived there.

Five years after he made their hometown infamous as the heart of his “caliphate”, residents of Mosul said Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi‘s death should be marked in only one way – with “a huge party”.

Al Jazeera’s Natasha Ghoneim reports from Mosul.