US Democratic Representative John Murtha, who said the Bush regime's handling of the war in Iraq was based on "flawed policy wrapped in illusion" and called for a withdrawal of US occupation troops there died Monday at a hospital after suffering complications from gallbladder surgery. He was 77.

According to AP, Murtha's large intestine was damaged during the surgery at a hospital in Bethesda. An infection and fever led him to be admitted days later, on Jan. 31, to the Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Virginia, where he died.

Murtha, a former Marine who became the de facto voice of veterans on Capitol Hill, was the first Vietnam veteran to serve in Congress.

Murtha voted in 2002 to authorize President George W. Bush to use military force in Iraq, but his growing frustration over the administration's handling of the war prompted him in November 2005 to call for an immediate withdrawal of troops.