Libyan bomb in Sheffield, UK

In the late eighties there was a bomb scare in Sheffield when a Libyan dissident spotted a suspicious package under his car, parked outside a supermarket. The army bomb squad was called out, but it proved to be a false alarm.

Suppose it hadn't been. Assume the bomb squad successfully defuse the device, and there's strong evidence it is indeed Libyan? What would the UK's reaction have been to Libya planting a bomb in a UK supermarket car park?

I don't recall the exact date so I'll say March, 1989, which is roughly right. (It was definitely during the school year, between September 1988 and August 1990).

My guess is the UK would drop a few more bombs on Libya, and boost anti-terrorism security, which might affect the IRA. There'd be no major long term impact, unless the UK bombs happened to kill Gaddafi, but it would affect UK views on Libya.

If instead the bomb actually went off, killing the intended target and injuring a couple of British passers-by, Thatcher would definitely be angry, but I doubt she'd have the support to do more than a couple of bombing raids and increased sanctions.
 
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