Colin Powell, Former US secretary of state dies of Covid-19 complications.
Tributes are being paid to former US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who has died of Covid-19 complications aged 84.
The former top military officer died on Monday morning, his family said.
After four decades in public service as America’s top soldier, diplomat and national security advisor, Powell’s influence in shaping U.S. diplomacy was later marred by his argument for the Iraq War. Following America’s entry into lengthy wars in the Middle East, Powell admitted his support for combat in Iraq haunted him.
“General Colin L. Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, passed away this morning due to complications from Covid 19,” the Powell family wrote on Facebook.
“We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American,” the family said, noting he was fully vaccinated.
The family thanked the staff at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland, where Powell was receiving care.
Powell had multiple myeloma, according to NBC News. It is a type of blood cancer that hurts the body’s ability to fight infections
He rose to become the first African-American secretary of state in 2001 under Republican President George W Bush.
Powell, who was fully vaccinated, later prompted controversy for his role in garnering support for the Iraq War.
“We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American,” the family said in a statement, thanking the staff at the Walter Reid Medical Center “for their caring treatment”.
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”.
Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair – who worked closely with Powell during the early years of the Iraq War – said he was someone of “immense capability and integrity” who was “a great companion, with a lovely and self-deprecating sense of humour”.
Mr Powell, a moderate Republican who broke with his party to endorse Barack Obama in 2008, became a trusted military adviser to a number of leading US politicians.
He also saw service and was wounded in Vietnam, an experience that later helped define his own military and political strategies.
However, he would say himself that his own legacy had been damaged by a speech to the United Nations Security Council which used faulty intelligence to back the invasion of Iraq.
“It was painful. It’s painful now,” Mr Powell told ABC News in 2005.
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