Former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has died, his family announced on Wednesday. He was 88.

The family did not disclose a cause of death but said he died "surrounded by family in his beloved Taos, New Mexico."

Rumsfeld held the Pentagon’s top post twice, first under former President Gerald Ford from 1975-1977 and then again under George W. Bush from 2001-2006. He was also a three-term congressman and a White House chief of staff to Ford.

Rumsfeld is perhaps best known for his second stint at the helm of the Defense Department during the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the execution of Bush's globe-spanning "War on Terror" campaign following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

He drew stern criticism for the US's campaign in Iraq, which was marred by the torture of detainees infamously brought to the public eye in 2004 with damning photos from the Abu Ghraib prison.