World

Colin Powell, general who became US secretary of state, dies with Covid-19

File photo dated 02/03/00 of (left) General Sir Colin Powell and then British prime minister Tony Blair in a meeting room at the Active Communities Convention and Celebration in the Wembley Conference Centre. Colin Powell, the former US Joint Chiefs chairman and US secretary of state, has died from Covid-19 complications, his family has said. Picture by Matthew Fearn/PA Wire
File photo dated 02/03/00 of (left) General Sir Colin Powell and then British prime minister Tony Blair in a meeting room at the Active Communities Convention and Celebration in the Wembley Conference Centre. Colin Powell, the former US Joint Chiefs File photo dated 02/03/00 of (left) General Sir Colin Powell and then British prime minister Tony Blair in a meeting room at the Active Communities Convention and Celebration in the Wembley Conference Centre. Colin Powell, the former US Joint Chiefs chairman and US secretary of state, has died from Covid-19 complications, his family has said. Picture by Matthew Fearn/PA Wire
By Associated Press Reporter

Colin Powell, the former US joint chiefs chairman and secretary of state, has died from Covid-19 complications, his family said.

In an announcement on social media, the family said Mr Powell had been fully vaccinated.

“We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father and grandfather and a great American,” the family said.

Mr Powell was the first African American to serve as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and secretary of state.

His reputation also suffered a painful setback when, in 2003, Mr Powell went before the UN Security Council and made the case for the war against Iraq.

He cited faulty information claiming Saddam Hussein had secretly stashed away weapons of mass destruction.

Iraq’s claims that it had not represented “a web of lies”, he told the world body.