CHICAGO (AFP) — A Pakistini-based branch of Al-Qaeda was hatching a plot to kill the head of US defense group Lockheed Martin, self-confessed terrorist David Coleman Headley testified in a US court Tuesday.

“There was a plan to kill him because he was making drones,” Headley testified during the Chicago trial of his childhood friend, Tahawwur Hussain Rana.

Headley pleaded guilty to 12 terrorism charges related to the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks and other unrealized plots in the wake of his 2009 arrest in Chicago.

He is testifying against alleged co-conspirator Rana in exchange for avoiding the death penalty and extradition to India, Pakistan or Denmark.

Headley said he was working on the plot with Ilyas Kashmiri, the commander of the Pakistani-based terrorist organization Harakat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HUJI), and a senior member of Al-Qaeda.