SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Colin Powell, the first black U.S. secretary of state and top military officer, died on Monday at the age of 84 from COVID-19 complications, his family said in a statement.
“He was fully vaccinated. We want to thank the medical staff at Walter Reed National Medical Center for their caring treatment,” Powell’s family said in a post on his Facebook page, according to Reuters.
Announcing his death, his family said they had lost a “remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American.
As 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 U.S.-led forces expelled Iraqi troops from neighboring Kuwait.
Powell, a moderate Republican and a pragmatist, later served as secretary of state under President George W. Bush.
