BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A man from Uzbekistan who pleaded guilty Friday to plotting to kill President Obama claimed he was acting at the direction of an Islamic terrorist group in his home country.

Authorities said Ulugbek Kodirov had discussed trying to fatally shoot the president as he campaigned for re-election because he would be out in public more often. Kodirov entered the plea during a hearing in Birmingham before U.S. District Judge Abdul Kallon, an Obama appointee.

Defense attorney Lance Bell said Kodirov, 22, faces up to 30 years in prison.

The judge also told Kodirov that he will face deportation once he's released from prison.

Kodirov pleaded guilty to three counts: threatening to kill the president, possessing an automatic weapon and providing material support to terrorists. Four other charges were dropped as part of the deal.

The plea agreement said that last July, Kodirov claimed he had been communicating with a person known as "the Emir." Kodirov said the person was a member of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.

Authorities did not reveal the identity of the Emir.

The Emir "asked Kodirov if there was anything Kodirov could do about President Obama since Kodirov was closer geographically to the president than the Emir," according to his plea agreement.

Kodirov and a person who helped authorities discussed possible ways to kill Obama, including from a long distance using a sniper rifle.

"Kodirov said that he did not care if he got shot and killed, as long as he killed President Obama," according to the plea deal.

Kodirov then struck up a friendship with another person in Birmingham who spoke Uzbek, and the two often attended mosque together. On July 11, after the two went to a mosque in Birmingham, Kodirov asked his friend to buy a gun for him so he could kill Obama.

Kodirov told the person he "knew this was what he was supposed to do for Islam," the plea agreement says.

Kodirov was arrested in July.

He was accused of making four separate threats against Obama within a five-day period when he was meeting either with a witness who went to police or an undercover officer.

Kodirov purchased an automatic rifle from an undercover agent at a Birmingham-area motel on July 13, when authorities said the final threat was made against the president. The agent also gave Kodirov four hand grenades with the powder removed.

Authorities say Kodirov was in the country illegally.

Also

New York terrorism: Mohammed Wali Zazi, the father of admitted terrorist Najibullah Zazi, was sentenced to 4 ½ years in prison Friday after he was convicted of destroying evidence and lying to investigators to cover up his son's plot to attack New York City subways in 2009 as one of three suicide bombers. The elder Zazi, 56, could have faced up to 40 years in prison.