A Pakistani-born computer technician in the United States pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 23 years in prison for joining an al-Qaeda plot to bomb the Washington region's Metrorail system. Farooque Ahmed, 35, a naturalised US citizen from Pakistan settled in northern Virginia, apologized for his actions during a hearing in a US District Court. His lawyer pleaded that Ahmed had succumbed to a government sting operation after being seduced by a radical cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, and others. He carried out several tasks between April and October last year to advance what he thought would be an al-Qaeda attack on the greater Washington's subway system. He took video and had recce of several northern Virginia Metro stations and made suggestions for inflicting the greatest number of casualties. According to authorities, Ahmed had also discussed travelling to Afghanistan to fight and kill Americans there.