Servicemen in the Sinai peninsula are ill-equipped and under-trained. Since the insurgency began, Egypt's propaganda narrative has portrayed its fighters as religious, disciplined, ‘born to kill’ fighting machines. Men aged 18 to 30 must serve in the military for eighteen months, followed by a nine-year obligation to serve if called for duty. IS militants are trained in guerrilla and desert warfare and house-to-house combat, and have military experience in Gaza, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. Egypt’s fighting forces are conscripts with 45 days in boot camp. Moataz, a medic now discharged from military duty, still has nightmares about his service and visits a psychiatrist. He said, ‘Body parts were everywhere in a scene that I will never forget. The rest of the bodies were firstly wounded and then executed by gunfire. Some bodies had more than 20 bullets in their heads. To us and many other conscripts, Sinai was our Vietnam.’