A CORKMAN who volunteered to take on the barbaric ISIS on the frontline in Iraq has revealed that the Islamic State have stuck a bounty on his head of €140,000 - even though he wants to return to the frontline after returning home to Cork for a break.
33-year-old Michael Martin, a former British Army solider from Cork City, told the Irish Sun about how he ended up volunteering in the first place to travel to Iraq.
He said: “I had friends who were out there, who had been in Syria and Peshmerga in Iraq so I had a lot of contacts and friends.
“I knew the struggle they were up against so I just volunteered my services. These are western volunteers who are helping the Kurdish Peshmerga and the International Peshmerga Volunteers."
Martin revealed the chilling message that the Islamic State know all of the western volunteers that have come to help, with Martin also revealing the bounty they put on his head.
Martin explained: “I’m pretty exposed out there. They already know who I am. They know who the western volunteers are, we all had prices on our heads. Last I heard mine was €140,000 or something. But I wasn’t going to be captured. I’d shoot myself."
But the Irishman insists that he doesn't fear getting caught with his Army knowledge and skills coming in handy in the battle against IS and even predicted when he believes that Islamic State would be defeated - when the city of Mosul falls.
He explained: “That’s basically their stronghold in Iraq so if we take Mosul then it’s just a matter of clearing up the pieces and putting a strategy together to build on from there.”
The ballsy Corkonian is spreading a message of solidarity with the people of Iraq on his return to Ireland, urging Irish medical companies to do and give what they can to help the Kurdish people in their fight against the Islamic terror state.
Martin appealed: “These boys fight with no body armour, no helmets, no nothing and they would go in and fight with their bare hands. They’re as brave as hell, but their education system is pretty sh**e so they don’t understand the basics of clotting and stitching, all the basic first aid.
“I’d like to highlight that problem. If we can’t support them with arms, we can support them with medicine and bandages."
The Kurdish state is the largest stateless nation in the world, in the 80's 182,000 civilians were slaughtered by the Iraqi government, and thousands more displaced and deported.
It's the modern day heroes that Martin is interested in helping.
He added: "I don’t want to be portrayed as a hero, the real heroes are the boys who are still out there, the boys who lost their lives. I just want to support my boys out there."
You can donate to his campaign here
