Donald Rumsfeld, who had the position former United States President George W Bush’s defense secretary and was the architect of the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, has died at age 88.
The statement did not say when Rumsfeld died.
He had two stints – from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, for whom he also served as White House chief of staff, and from 2001 to 2006 under Bush.
Rumsfeld supervised the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq but was unsuccessful in maintaining law and order in the aftermath, resulting in Iraq descending into chaos with a bloody insurgency and violence between Sunni and Shia Muslims.
US troops remained in Iraq until 2011, long after he left his post.
Rumsfeld played a leading role ahead of the war in making the case to the world for the March 2003 invasion. He warned of the dangers of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction but no such weapons were ever discovered.
In 2004, Bush twice refused to accept Rumsfeld’s offer to resign after photos surfaced of US personnel abusing prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad.
The US faced global denunciation after the photos showed US troops smiling, laughing and giving thumbs up as prisoners were forced into sexually abusive and humiliating positions including a naked human pyramid and simulated sex.
One photo showed a prisoner forced to stand on a small box, his head covered in a black hood, with wires attached to his body.
Rumsfeld personally approved harsh interrogation techniques for detainees.
The US treatment of detainees in Iraq and foreign terrorism suspects at a special prison set up under Rumsfeld at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, drew international condemnation, with human rights activists and others saying prisoners were tortured.