Charges: Faisal Shahzad, 30, could face life in jail after admitting the failed bomb plot in New York's Times Square
Revenge': Shahzad admitted travelling to Pakistan for bomb-making training before carrying out the failed attack
A Pakistani-born U.S. citizen pleaded guilty to attempting to detonate a car bomb in New York's Times Square and said Islamist extremists would continue to target the U.S.
Faisal Shahzad, 30, admitted travelling to Pakistan to receive bomb-making training from a Taliban group, called Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, and receiving $12,000 (£8,000) from the group to carry out the failed attack on May 1.
Packed: A bomb disposal expert approaches the SUV parked in Times Square. It contained three homemade bombs
Carnage: Shahzad said he chose the night of May 1 because Times Square would have been packed with people he could injure or kill
Shahzad, who has a wife and two children living in Pakistan, pleaded guilty to 10 charges, including attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and attempted terrorism transcending national borders. He faces life in prison.
He told a district court in Manhattan that until the U.S. stopped drone aircraft attacks and the occupation of 'Muslim lands' 'we will be attacking the U.S. and I plead guilty to that'.
'I consider myself a Muslim soldier,' he added.
He said he attempted to detonate a bomb in an SUV parked in Times Square, and chose a warm Saturday night because it would be crowded with people who he could injure or kill.
Shahzad told the court he had actually packed his vehicle with three separate bombs and had hoped to set off a fertiliser-fueled bomb packed in a gun cabinet, a set of propane tanks and gas canisters rigged with fireworks to cause a massive fireball.
He said he expected to bombs to beging going off after he lit a fuse and waited for them to explode.
'I was waiting to hear a sound but I didn't hear a sound. So I walked to Grand Central and went home,' he said.
He dismissed distict judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum's questions about targeting children and said the U.s. did not care when children were killed in Muslim countries.
He said: 'It's a war. I am part of the answer to the U.S. terrorising the Muslim nations and the Muslim people.
'On behalf of that, I'm revenging the attack. Living in the U.S., Americans only care about their people but they don't care about the people elsewhere in the world when they die.'
Shahzad parked the vehicle in Times Square with is engine running and hazard lights flashing last month.
Street vendors alerted police to the smoking vehicle within minutes and thousands of people were evacuated from the popular theatre district.
A New York Police Department bomb squad defused the device.
The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attempted bombing.
CIA-operated drones have targeted Taliban figures in Pakistan's tribal areas and the group has vowed to avenge missile strikes that have killed some of its leaders.
Shahzad, the son of a retired Pakistani vice air marshal, was arrested onboard a Dubai-bound plane at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport two days after the attempted attack. He had been on his way to Pakistan.
He had been living in the neighbouring state of Connecticut and became a U.S. citizen last year.
At least 11 people have been arrested in Pakistan in connection with the attempted bombing and U.S. authorities carried out raids in New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Maine - detaining several people on immigration charges.
Shahzad will be sentenced on October 5.
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