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Washington (CNN) -- Last September's terrorist attack in Libya that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans didn't happen in a vacuum but was part of a "broader strategic challenge in North Africa and the wider region," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday.

In sometimes emotional testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the September 11 attack on a diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Clinton reiterated that her position made her responsible for what happened.

"As I have said many times since September 11, I take responsibility," Clinton told the panel.

Clinton's Benghazi statement: 'Not just a matter of policy -- it's personal'

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, pictured in October, has become one of the most powerful people in Washington. Here's a look at her life and career through the years:

Hillary Rodham, center, a lawyer for the Rodino Committee, and John Doar, left, chief counsel for the committee, bring impeachment charges against President Richard Nixon in the Judiciary Committee hearing room at the U.S. Capitol in 1974.

Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton helps first lady Rosalynn Carter on a campaign swing through Arkansas in June 1979. Also seen is Hillary Clinton (center background).

Bill Clinton embraces his wife shortly after a stage light fell and knocked her down on January 26, 1992. They talk to Don Hewitt, producer of the CBS newsmagazine "60 Minutes."

With Hillary, Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton waves to the crowd during his victory party after winning the Illinois primary on March 17, 1992.

Al Gore, from left, his wife, Tipper, Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton wave to supporters at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York, on August 23, 1992, after they gave speeches on family values.

Clinton gestures at a campaign rally November 3, 1992, in Denver. After taking office, President Bill Clinton chose his wife to head a special commission on health care reform, the most significant public policy initiative of his first year in office.

Bill and Hillary Clinton have a laugh together on Capitol Hill in 1993.

Clinton pours herself a cup of tea during her testimony to the Senate Education and Labor Committee on health care reform in 1993.

Clinton speaks at George Washington University on September 10, 1993, in Washington, during her husband's first term.

Clinton, left, waves to the media on January 26, 1996, as she arrives at federal court in Washington for an appearance before a grand jury. The first lady was subpoenaed to testify as a witness in the investigation of the Whitewater land deal in Arkansas.

Hillary Clinton looks on as President Bill Clinton addresses the Monica Lewinsky scandal in the Roosevelt Room at the White House on January 26, 1998.

Hillary and Bill Clinton arrive at Foundry United Methodist Church on August 16, 1998, in Washington. He became the first sitting president to testify before a grand jury when he testified via satellite about the Monica Lewinsky matter.

Clinton shakes hands during a St. Patrick's Day parade in the Sunnyside neighborhood of Queens, New York, on March 5, 2000.

Clinton waves to the crowd as she arrives on the stage at the Democratic National Convention on August 14, 2000, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Clinton campaigns for a Senate seat at Grand Central Station on October 25, 2000, in New York.

First lady Hillary Clinton is sworn in as a senator in a re-enactment ceremony with U,S. President Bill Clinton, from left, nephew Tyler, daughter Chelsea, brother Hugh Rodham, mother Dorothy Rodham and Vice President Al Gore in the Old Senate Chamber on Capitol Hill on January 3, 2001, in Washington.

Andrew Cuomo, from left, Eliot Spitzer and Clinton celebrate with the crowd of Democratic supporters after their wins in their various races on November 7, 2006, in New York City.

Clinton speaks during a post-primary rally on January 8, 2007, at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Hillary and Bill Clinton pay a visit to the 92nd Annual Hopkinton State Fair on September 2, 2007, in Contoocook, New Hampshire.

Clinton speaks at a fall kick-off campaign rally on September 2, 2007, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Clinton addresses a question during a Democratic Presidential Candidates Debate at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, on September 26, 2007.

Felipe Bravo, left, and Christian Caraballo are covered with Hillary Clinton stickers in downtown Manchester, New Hampshire, on January 8, 2008.

Clinton campaigns with her daughter, Chelsea, on January 1, 2008, in Council Bluffs, Iowa, two days ahead of the January 3 state caucus.

Sen. Clinton waves as she speaks to supporters at the National Building Museum on June 7, 2008, in Washington. Clinton thanked her supporters and urged them to back Sen. Barack Obama to be the next president of the United States.

Barack Obama and Clinton talk on the plane on their way to a Unity Rally in Unity, New Hampshire, on June 27, 2008.

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama watches Sen. Hillary Clinton address the Democrate National Convention at a Democratic supporters' group in Billings, Montana, on August 26, 2008. The two endured a long, heated contest for the 2008 nomination.

Sen. Charles Schumer, left, looks toward Secretary of State designate Clinton as committee chairman Sen. John Kerry, center, looks on during nomination hearings on January 13, 2009, on Capitol Hill.

Clinton testifies during her confirmation hearing for secretary of state before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Capitol Hill on January 13, 2009, in Washington.

Clinton dances with a local choir as while visiting the Victoria Mxenge Housing Project in Philippi on the outskirts of Cape Town, Souith Africa, on August 8, 2009.

Clinton looks through binoculars toward North Korea during a visit to observation post Ouellette at the Demilitarized Zone seperating the two Koreas in Panmunjon on July 21, 2010.

Clinton walks up the steps to her aircraft at sunset as she leaves an ASEAN meeting July 23, 2010, in Hanoi, Vietnam.

From left: Marc Mezvinsky, Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton and Bill Clinton pose during the wedding of the young couple at the Astor Courts Estate on July 31, 2010, in Rhinebeck, New York.

U.S. President Barack Obama and Clinton hold a moment of silence before a NATO meeting on November 19, 2010, in Lisbon, Portugal.

Clinton listens as Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (not in picture) makes a brief statement before a bilateral meeting at the State Department in Washington on November 29, 2010.

Clinton shakes hands with a child during an unannounced walk through Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, on March 16, 2011.

President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Clinton and members of the national security team receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House on May 1, 2011.

Clinton checks her PDA upon departure in a military C-17 plane from Malta bound for Tripoli, Libya, on October 18, 2011.

Clinton speaks as Hamid Karzai, president of Afghanistan, listens during a news conference at the presidential palace in Kabul on July 7.

Clinton arrives at Ben Gurion International Airport on July 15, in Lod, outside Tel Aviv, Israel.

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

Hillary Clinton through the years

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Photos: Clinton through the years

10 questions Hillary Clinton must answer

Clinton's role in global diplomacy

In response to critics who have charged that the State Department refused additional protection sought by diplomatic and security staff, Clinton said in opening remarks that there was "timely" and "exceptional" coordination between the State Department and the Pentagon on the night of the attack

"No delays in decision-making. No denials of support from Washington or from the military,' Clinton said. An independent review of the U.S. government's response to the attack, she noted, "said our response saved American lives in real time -- and it did."

Clinton said she directed the response to the attack from the State Department that night and "stayed in close contact with officials from across our government and the Libyan government."

Anticipating criticism of misleading "talking points" prepared by the CIA that initially said the attack on the mission was motivated by anger over an anti-Islam video, Clinton said: "The very next morning, I told the American people that 'heavily armed militants assaulted our compound' and vowed to bring them to justice. And I stood with President Obama as he spoke of 'an act of terror.' "

In addition, Clinton said she immediately took steps to beef up security at U.S. posts around the world, including creating an independent review board that found "systematic failures" in how the State Department handled security at the mission.

Questions for Clinton in the Benghazi hot seat

"I have accepted every one of their recommendations," she said. "I asked the deputy secretary for management and resources to lead a task force to ensure that all 29 of them are implemented quickly and completely as well as pursuing additional steps above and beyond the recommendations."

The appearance in the Senate and, later Wednesday, before a House committee, was one of the last acts for Clinton before she leaves her post as long planned.

"For me, this is not just a matter of policy," she said. "It's personal."

In reference to the return of remains of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and the other three slain Americans, Clinton said in voice choked with emotion: "I stood next to President Obama as the Marines carried those flag-draped caskets off the plane at Andrews. I put my arms around the mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters."

Republican questions at the hearings were expected to range from a security vacuum in Northern Africa to new cables suggesting that Stevens once proposed moving the compound to a more secure location adjacent the CIA Annex, sources told CNN.

With several new members on the House Foreign Relations Committee, and two possible GOP presidential hopefuls -- Marco Rubio of Florida and Rand Paul of Kentucky -- on the Senate panel, State Department officials anticipated aggressive questions about whether the presence of Islamic extremists in Mali and Algeria were in any way related to past decisions by the Obama administration to keep U.S. combat troops out of Libya.

However, A GOP member of the committee told CNN that House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce, R-California, met with Republicans on the committee and urged them to be respectful of Clinton.

Clinton was originally scheduled to testify last month but postponed her appearance as she was treated for illness, a concussion and a blood clot near her brain. The country's top diplomat returned to work just over two weeks ago.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said Clinton was "going to get some very hard questions" on the State Department's role in handling security for diplomatic security in Libya before the attack, as well as what Clinton was doing the night of the violence.

Clinton faces hearings with numbers on her side

"We had an ambassador missing for something like seven hours with no assets brought in" for a response, he told CNN on Wednesday.

An independent report from the Accountability Review Board ordered by the State Department said it did not find "that any individual U.S. government employee engaged in misconduct or willfully ignored his or her responsibilities" leading up to the attack.

However, one State Department official resigned and three others were placed on administrative leave after the report was released in December.

Pentagon releases official timeline of Benghazi attack

Sources told CNN that congressional staffers have been shown new State Department e-mails and cables indicating that in November 2011, Stevens proposed two options to the State Department for boosting security for diplomats in Benghazi.

The first involved moving the diplomatic compound back into a hotel. The second would have moved the compound to an unoccupied villa adjacent the CIA Annex.

CIA officials agreed with U.S. diplomatic personnel in the country that the latter option would be safer, but the State Department rejected the idea.

It's a position Clinton took soon after the September attack, telling CNN in an interview last October that she was ultimately responsible for security.

There have been more than 30 hearings and closed door briefings on Benghazi with State Department officials present.

Rep. Gerald E. Connolly of Virginia, a Democratic member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Congress has failed to expeditiously fund State Department efforts to upgrade security at high-risk posts. He pointed a finger at House Republican leaders.

"A paucity of resources ingrains a specific culture within any organization, in this case the State Department --- namely that every purchase, every expense, must be justified in a time when the threat of even more cuts loom beyond the horizon," Connolly said in a statement released on the eve of the hearings.

Obama ordered a review of security at all diplomatic outposts in the wake of the attack.

Clinton also was likely to face questions about the storming of the natural gas facility last week in Algeria during which militants seized dozens of hostages. Three Americans lost their lives.

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is believed to have had a hand in the attack. Clinton also will likely face questions about the battle against extremists in neighboring Mali.

CNN's Jake Tapper, Elise Labott and Ted Barrett contributed to this report.