Washington D.C.,
The first black US secretary of state and top military officer, Colin Powell, died on Monday at the age of 84 from COVID-19 complications, according to his family statement.
“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 posted on their Facebook page.
Being a four-star Army general, he was chairman of the military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff under President George H W Bush during the 1991 Gulf War in which US-led forces expelled Iraqi forces from neighboring Kuwait.
Powell, a moderate Republican and a pragmatist, later served as secretary of state under President George W Bush.
