Donald Rumsfeld Photo: VCG

Former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the main architect of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, has died, according to a statement by his family released Wednesday. He was 88 years old.

"It is with deep sadness that we share the news of the passing of Donald Rumsfeld, an American statesman and devoted husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather. At 88, he was surrounded by family in his beloved Taos, New Mexico," the Rumsfeld family said in the statement.

The cause of the former defense chief's death was multiple myeloma, according to Keith Urbahn, a spokesman for the family.

Rumsfeld first served as defense secretary in the Gerald Ford administration during the early 1970s, and then headed the Pentagon again under then president George W. Bush in the early 2000s.

While the veteran politician's two stints at the helm of the Pentagon made him both the youngest and the second-oldest secretary of defense, it was the second term that defined Rumsfeld's legacy.

Rumsfeld oversaw two conflicts during his tenure in the position - Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan conducted less than a month following the 9/11 terror attack on American homeland in 2001, and the Iraq War launched in 2003.

Despite the criticism that long outlived Rumsfeld's years in Washington, the former president lauded his former defense secretary as an "exemplary public servant and a very good man" in a statement released on Wednesday.