Former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dead at 88

Donald Rumsfeld, who served as former United States President George W Bush's defence 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 oversaw the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq but failed to maintain 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 condemnation 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 authorised 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.

Rumsfeld became a lightning rod for criticism and, with the Iraq war largely a stalemate and public support eroding, Bush replaced him in November 2006 over Cheney's objections.

Robert Gates, a former CIA director, took over from Rumsfeld in December 2006 and made strategic and military leadership changes in Iraq.

Rumsfeld also oversaw the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 to oust the Taliban leaders, who had harbored the al Qaeda leaders responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States. 

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As he did in Iraq two years later, Rumsfeld sent a small force to Afghanistan, quickly chased the Taliban from power and then failed to establish law and order.

US forces during Rumsfeld's tenure also were unable to track down Osama bin Laden. 

The al Qaeda chief slipped past a modest force of US special operations troops and CIA officers along with allied Afghan fighters in the Afghan mountains of Tora Bora in December 2001. 

US forces killed him in 2011 under President Barack Obama's administration.

During his time away from public service, Rumsfeld became wealthy as a successful businessman, serving as chief executive of two Fortune 500 companies. In 1988, he briefly ran for the Republican US presidential nomination.

Rumsfeld also served as a Navy pilot, US NATO ambassador and was elected to the US House of Representatives. He and wife Joyce had three children.