By a note handed to the Secretary of the People’s Committee (the ranking official) of the Libyan “People’s Bureau” at Washington, on December 22, 1980, the Department of State signified acceptance by the United States Government of an offer of compensation from the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya for damages and expenditures that resulted from a mob attack (“students’ spontaneous demonstration”) on the American Embassy at Tripoli on December 2, 1979. Without acknowledging responsibility for the attack, the Libyan Government had agreed to pay compensation in a note received in the Department on December 6, 1979. Following the attack, the United States had reduced its mission at Tripoli to two officers, whom it withdrew on May 2, 1980, when the American Embassy at Tripoli was closed.