US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who was accused by Turkish authorities of organizing a failed 2016 coup, has died in exile in the United States aged 83, his personal website said. Gulen's website, Herkul, which is banned in Turkey, said the imam died on October 20.

Gulen had been an ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but after going into exile, Erdogan's government accused his Hizmet organization of being a "terrorist" group and Gulen of attempting a coup in 2016. He denied the accusations.

Hizmet, which means "service" in Turkish, runs a network of Islamic schools around the world and has become an influential but opaque group.

Erdogan launched a crackdown on Gulen followers after corruption allegations were made in 2013 against the president's Justice and Development Party. Erdogan said the investigators were Gulen followers. A failed coup against Erdogan in 2016 deepened the rift.

The president accused Gulen of mounting the coup, 3,000 Gulen followers were given life in jail and legal action was taken against 700,000 people. About 125,000 government workers, including 24,000 soldiers and thousands of investigating magistrates, were sacked.

News of Gulen's death was widely reported by Turkish media on Monday and Turkey's foreign minister confirmed it hours after it was announced in the United States. "Our intelligence sources confirm the death of the leader of the FETO organization," Hakan Fidan told a press conference, using Turkey's term for Gulen's influential Hizmet organization.