Extend syntax highlighting for Markdown in Kate?

**Is there a plugin/xml file or any way to extend the capability of Kate to highlight Markdown?** I am really comfortable with Kate (using version 15.12.3) and I use it to write logs. For plain-text readibility I use Markdown, since it is a Markup language that (in my opinion) doesn't need compilation to look pretty. However, Markdown-syntax-highlighting helps! Luckily, Kate supports some basic syntax highlighting, like highlighting headers (when using #), italic (using * or _), indents, inline code (using backticks) and lists (using - or 1. / 2. / ...). However, some interesting features are missing, e.g. like bold text (using ** or __) highlighting headers in underline style: h1: my header ============= h2: my sub header ----------------- and most importantly for me the syntax highlighting *without indent*, using backticks: a syntax block in markdown can be started with indents (4 spaces): code() but also with 3 backticks:

code()
    highlight.me{}

only in the backtick syntax we can use a notation that some tools convert to language specific highlighting

public class HelloWorld {
       public static void main(String[] args) {
         System.out.println("Hello, World");
       }
    }

Since I use this in plain-text markdown to write code that I can copy and paste without indents, I'd love if Kate would be able to recognize this as code. So are there syntax highlighting extensions for enhanced Markdown support in Markdown?