In this courtroom sketch, Agron Hasbajrami, center, is arraigned on a charge of providing material support to terrorists Friday, Sept. 9, 2011 in Brooklyn Federal Court in New York.    —(AP Photo/Elizabeth Williams)

NEW YORK: An Albanian man living in New York has pleaded guilty to a terrorism charge after admitting he tried to go to Pakistan to join a radical jihadist insurgent group.    

Agron Hasbajrami who is an Albanian citizen and a legal US citizen, entered the plea Thursday in federal court to trying to provide material support to terrorists.

He faces up to 15 years in prison. He also has agreed to be deported.

Authorities say he sent more than $1,000 abroad to support terrorist activities in Pakistan and Afghanistan and communicated with someone in Pakistan who said he was a member of an armed group that had killed US soldiers.

Authorities also say he expressed a desire to die as a martyr.

Hasbajrami was arrested at Kennedy Airport in September.