"The whole thing was just chaos"- Athy educated soldier freed from Iraqi jail cell speaks about battles with Isis

Joshua Molloy, the Irish man who was arrested in Syria a little over two weeks ago, has opened up about his experiences in the Middle East following his release from an Iraqi jail cell last week.

Molloy, who was schooled in Ardscoil na Trionóide in Athy, was arrested along with two other soldiers after they illegally crossed the Syrian border to Iraq, but following the intervention of Foreign Affairs offices in Britain and Ireland all three men were released.

In an interview with the Irish Mail, Molloy spoke of his battles against Isis soldiers while fighting for Kurdish forces in the region.

"It was a static frontline position, similar to World War One," he said.

"Usually snipers from their village would engage us, or one of our guys would engage with them. Some of the Isis fighters were crazy and would open up, revealing their position, firing wildly.

"Night time was so tense, sometimes you can't see your comrade and you feel totally alone. We used to leave the villages and secure positions on the front line, doing guard duty for three hours. I didn't sleep for the first few nights."

Molloy has been fighting alongside Kurdish forces for over nine months now as part of a British regiment deployed in the region, and he insisted that he went to the war-torn country to try and make a difference and stop the 'cultural genocide' that Isis are committing.

"I felt this was was not just about the horrific crimes Isis was committing against people but it was also a war on their history, a sort of cultural genocide.

"They were just erasing Christian and Yazidi communities. It was brutal and ignorant," he said.

The Ballylinan native recalled some of the more frightening battles he has been involved in, describing one scenario in which he could hear an Isis fighter screaming 'Allahu Akbar' as he charged towards him.

"That night we were so close to them, one fighter was less than 50 metres from me. I could hear him shouting 'Allahu Akbar' as he was charging towards us.

"It was a failed assault on the village in front of us. The whole thing was just chaos and confusion and a lot of panicking, which is a symptom of a poorly trained militia.

"When I think about that now it sends a shiver up my spine."

The 24-year-old soldier is now on his way home from the region and is currently staying in the Iraqi city of Erbil before he begins the next leg of his journey.