83-year-old Turkish Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara says was behind a 2016 failed coup, has died in the United States where he was based, Turkish media and a website associated with Gulen said, writes Reuters.

Gulen built a powerful Islamic movement in Turkey and beyond but spent his later years accused of orchestrating an attempted coup against Turkish leader Tayyip Erdogan, accusations which he denied.

Herkul, a website which publishes Gulen’s sermons, said on its X account that Gulen had died on Sunday evening in the hospital where he was being treated.

Gulen was a one-time ally of Erdogan but they fell out spectacularly, and Erdogan held him responsible for the 2016 attempted coup in which rogue soldiers commandeered warplanes, tanks and helicopters. Some 250 people were killed in the bid to seize power. He had lived in self-imposed exile in the US since 1999.