Former US Vice President Dick Cheney has died at age 84 due to complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease. Long plagued by heart problems, he suffered his first heart attack at 37 and received a heart transplant in 2012. A Wyoming congressman before becoming defence secretary under President George H.W. Bush, Mr Cheney played a key role during the 1991 Gulf War.

He later served as Vice President to President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009. Mr Cheney was a leading advocate for the 2003 Iraq invasion, citing weapons of mass destruction that were never discovered.