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A Moroccan illegal immigrant pleaded guilty on Friday to attempting a suicide bombing of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington in a deal with prosecutors that could see him sentenced to up to 30 years in prison, Reuters reported.

Amine El Khalifi, 29, was arrested in a sting operation in a parking garage near the Capitol on February 17 with an automatic weapon and wearing a vest he believed was full of explosives supplied by al Qaeda, according to U.S. officials.

He intended to shoot bystanders before detonating a bomb inside the building, which is home to Congress, they said. His gun and the explosives, however, had been rendered inoperable by U.S. agents, according to the FBI.

Khalifi, who was living in Alexandria, Virginia at the time of his arrest, pleaded guilty to one criminal count of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction against property owned and used by the United States.

"I plead guilty," he said, dressed in a gray prison jumpsuit and standing before Judge James Cacheris of the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia.

He will be sentenced on September 14.