Fox News contributor and syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer has died at the age of 68 after a battle with cancer, Fox News has announced.

The conservative intellectual, whose columns, political commentary and war propaganda over the past several decades shaped American politics for generations, breathed his last on Thursday.

His death was also confirmed by The Washington Post, where he had been a columnist for more than three decades.

Krauthammer won the Pulitzer Prize in 1987 and received a National Magazine Award in 1984.

In a letter shared earlier this month, the 68-year-old announced that he had "only a few weeks left to live,” and said that a "secondary cancer" had spread after doctors successfully removed a tumor in his abdomen.

"My doctors tell me their best estimate is that I have only a few weeks left to live. This is the final verdict. My fight is over," he wrote on June 8.

Krauthammer wrote that he underwent surgery in August last year to remove a cancerous tumor in his abdomen. While thought to be successful, he said there were complications that he was overcoming. However, he wrote recent tests revealed the cancer had returned and is "spreading rapidly."

"I leave this life with no regrets," he wrote in the farewell message. "It was a wonderful life -- full and complete with the great loves and great endeavors that make it worth living. I am sad to leave, but I leave with the knowledge that I lived the life that I intended."

Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott said in a statement released by the network, “We are deeply saddened by the loss of our colleague and friend, Charles Krauthammer."

"A gifted doctor and brilliant political commentator, Charles was a guiding voice throughout his time with FOX News and we were incredibly fortunate to showcase his extraordinary talent on our programs. He was an inspiration to all of us and will be greatly missed. Our thoughts and prayers are with his beloved wife Robyn and his son Daniel."

Krauthammer was paralyzed below the neck in a diving accident yet graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1975 and practiced psychiatry. He later developed a career as an author and political commentator.

'A huge loss for Empire'

Krauthammer’s parents were both orthodox Jewish immigrants. A noted Zionist, he was a strong supporter of Israel and turned a blind eye to the regime’s war crimes and atrocities against Palestinians.

American writer and political analyst Daniel Patrick Welch called Krauthammer's death "a huge loss for the Empire."

"It's always sad when someone dies. As great English poet John Donne said, 'Each man's death diminishes me,'" Welch said in a message sent to Press TV.

"Still I can't help thinking the devil is scrambling to claim a worthy soul for his cause," he stated.

Meanwhile, Professor Dennis Etler told Press TV that  "Krauthammer was a long standing member of the right-wing intelligentsia and apologist fro US imperialism. One of many."

"The United States has a dozen of propagandists ranging from supposedly erudite pundits to crass populist demagogues who are trotted out to 'explain' US foreign policy, identify enemies and justify wars of aggression in service to US imperialism," said Etler -- a former professor of Anthropology at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California.

"Krauthammer was one of the best at dissimulating the depredations of US imperialism and was thus revered by conservatives and liberals alike," added the commentator who has a decades-long interest in US politics and international affairs.