MEXICO CITY, June 29 (Reuters) - The prominent leader of a vigilante group in the western Mexican state of Michoacan was slain on Thursday, the local government said, in a brutal attack that left his body so badly burned that it was almost unrecognizable. The state attorney general's office said at around midday it received word of an attack on Hipolito Mora in the town of Felipe Carrillo Puerto in western Michoacan. Mora founded a so-called self-defense group that rose to prominence a decade ago with a declared aim of protecting the area from a predatory drug gang in the violent state. Prosecutors said they believed Mora had been traveling with a security detail when he came under attack by assailants who then fled. On Twitter he called the attack on Mora and local police officers a "cowardly killing," and promised to bring those responsible to justice.

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Persons: general's, Hipolito Mora, Felipe Carrillo, Mora, Prosecutors, Michoacan's, Alfredo Ramirez Bedolla, Lizbeth Diaz, Dave Graham, Leslie Adler Organizations: MEXICO CITY, Twitter, Reuters, Thomson Locations: MEXICO, Mexican, Michoacan, Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Mora