Former US president George H.W. Bush dies at 94

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Former United States President George H.W. Bush, who helped preside over the end of the Cold War and ordered the First Gulf War, died on Friday at the age of 94.

Bush was the 41st president of the US and lived longer than any of his predecessors. He died at 10:10 p.m. Central time, according to a statement issued by  Jim McGrath, his longtime spokesperson.

“Jeb, Neil, Marvin, Doro and I are saddened to announce that after 94 remarkable years, our dear Dad has died,” his son, former president George W. Bush, said in his own statement, also released by McGrath on Twitter.

“George H.W. Bush was a man of the highest character and the best dad a son or daughter could ask for.”

Bush’s death comes just months after the passing of his wife and first lady Barbara Bush in April, to whom he was married for 73 years.

He is survived by five children and 17 grandchildren.

The spokesperson stated that funeral arrangements will be announced soon.

Bush was a foreign policy stalwart who declared a “new world order” in 1990 and drove Iraq from Kuwait but saw his military intervention in the Middle East serve as a harbinger of chaos to come.

The decorated war pilot and former CIA chief spent four years as president, being denied a second term in a weak economy when he lost the 1992 election to Bill Clinton. Before that, he served between 1981 and 1989 as vice president under Ronald Reagan. 

Editing by John J. Catherine