Embassies are important functional and symbolic representations of the mother country. Historically, the establishing of a foreign embassy in a new country has been a gesture of a desire to have working relations with the host country. Home to the Diplomat, as well providing assistance and information to citizens of the host country, embassies have also been a vulnerable target to terrorists. In 1983 a suicide bomber killed 63 people including 16 Americans while demolishing the United States embassy in Beirut.