A federal court in New York City Friday sentenced an al-Qaida member to life in prison for a failed plot to carry out suicide bombings in the city's subway in 2009.

Prosecutors say Adis Medunjanin and his accomplices were just days away from carrying out their plans before federal agents foiled the plot.

Authorities also say Medunjanin tried to avoid arrest by driving an explosives-packed car at high-speed along a city expressway intending to crash into another car and blow himself up.

The Justice Department says Medunjanin and his co-defendants left the United States in 2008 with the intention of joining the Taliban in Afghanistan. Instead, they wound up in Pakistan where al-Qaida operatives trained them and ordered them to carry out terrorist strikes in the United States.

Six other suspects have already been convicted.