Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton makes remarks on June 17, 2009, at the State Department in Washington, D.C. (Photo: KAREN BLEIER, AFP/Getty Images)

Hillary Clinton's tenure as President Obama's first secretary of State from 2009 through January 2013 was marked by extreme turmoil in the Middle East. It included the Arab Spring protests, Iranian nuclear brinkmanship and withdrawal of U.S. troops in Iraq. Republican rival Donald Trump said her tenure at State left a legacy of "death, destruction and weakness."

Here is what Trump said, plus events before, during and after her time as secretary:

Residents gather at the site of a bomb attack in Syria's northeastern city of Qamishli on July 27, 2016. A massive bomb blast claimed by the Islamic State killed at least 44 people and wounded dozens in the Kurdish-majority Syrian city, according to Syrian state media. (Photo: DELIL SOULEIMAN, AFP/Getty Images)

ISLAMIC STATE (ISIS or ISIL):

Trump said: "In 2009, pre-Hillary, ISIS was not even on the map. ... ISIS has spread across the region, and the world. "

Before Clinton: ISIS was al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), which launched a bloody campaign against Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority and U.S. troops. AQI faded into obscurity after an increase in U.S. troops in 2007 teamed up with Sunni Arab tribes to combat the group.

Clinton's role: Obama's withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq in 2011 and the start of the Syrian civil war that same year created turmoil that allowed AQI to re-emerge. Obama rejected Clinton's advice to take a more aggressive approach toward Syria to protect civilians and empower moderate and secular rebels to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad's brutal regime. She also saw the war as an opportunity to sever Syria's close alliance with Iran. It's not clear if Clinton's approach would have prevented AQI from re-emerging and later branding itself as the Islamic State.

After Clinton: Over the next three years, ISIS took advantage of growing instability in Syria to seize territory there, but it did not gain international notoriety until it occupied portions of neighboring Iraq in June 2014, more than a year after Clinton left State. The group has since plotted or inspired followers to launch terrorist attacks around the world.

A man waves a rifle as buildings and cars are engulfed in flames after being set on fire inside the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012. (Photo: STR, AFP/Getty Images)

LIBYA

Trump said: "Libya was cooperating. ... Libya is in ruins, and our Ambassador and his staff were left helpless to die at the hands of savage killers."

Before Clinton: Libya and its strongman leader, Moammar Gaddafi, renounced the country's nuclear weapons program in 2003 and allowed the United States and Britain to destroy its nuclear weapons infrastructure. Libya earlier renounced terrorism as well, turning over terror suspects and paying compensation to the victims of Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, killing all 259 aboard.

Clinton's role: When the Arab Spring uprisings in neighboring Tunisia and Egypt spread to Libya in 2011, Gaddafi sought to put the revolt down by force. Clinton helped develop the NATO campaign to stop him. Libya's rebels gained momentum and overthrew Gaddafi. The ensuing power vacuum gave rise to militias, including al-Qaeda, which launched a terrorist attack that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans at a U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012. In the following days, Clinton and the White House wrongly blamed the attack on a protest over an anti-Islam video, and only later acknowledged there was no protest and it was a planned terrorist attack. Obama and Clinton had a plan for stabilizing Libya after Gaddafi's fall, but Libya's transitional government rejected any role for foreign troops.

After Clinton: Multiple investigations by Clinton's State Department and congressional panels found that State did not provide enough security at the diplomatic post in Benghazi, but little more could have been done to protect the Americans once the attack began. Libya's warring factions formed a government this year, opening the door to U.S. assistance to defeat the Islamic State, which took advantage of the chaos to grab territory in parts of the country.

Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, on Jan. 23, 2013. (Photo: SAUL LOEB, AFP/Getty Images)

Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (C) waves as she takes an unannounced walk through Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the 18-day protest that overthrew long time