United States’ former Secretary of State Colin Powell died on Monday at the age of 84 following Covid-19 complications, his family said in a statement.
Powell, a moderate Republican and a pragmatist, served as secretary of state under President George W. Bush. He was the first-ever black Secretary of State in the US and was a war veteran who saw his legacy tarnished after he made a case in Iraq back in 2003.
"We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American," the family said in a statement posted to social media.
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His family said that he was fully vaccinated, followed by thanking the medical staff at Walter Reed National Medical Center for taking care of him.
"He was fully vaccinated. We want to thank the medical staff at Walter Reed National Medical Center for their caring treatment. We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American," Powell's family said in a post on his Facebook page.
As a four-star Army general, he was chairman of the military's Joint Chiefs of Staff under President George HW Bush during the 1991 Gulf War in which US-led forces expelled Iraqi troops from neighboring Kuwait.
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He also saw service and was wounded in Vietnam, an experience that later helped define his own military and political strategies.
George W Bush was among the first to pay tribute to "a great public servant" as well as "a family man and a friend" who "was such a favourite of presidents that he earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom - twice".
