IT appears that suppositions in high places about where al Qaida’s leaders have been holed up have been mistaken.

It could well be the case that whatever the criticisms of the Taliban’s rule, their Government in Afghanistan was no more responsible for, intentionally or unintentionally, helping to host al Qaida terrorist training camps than Pakistan.

Osama bin Laden was probably all the time in the relative comfort of a dwelling near Islamabad.

It would not be surprising if it is eventually revealed that only a small number of al Qaida recruits underwent training in the camps of Afghanistan.

If so, then all the loss of life brought about by the military intervention has achieved nothing more than to make ordinary Afghan people look forward to the day of our departure – just as they couldn’t wait to see the back of the Russians.

The killing of Osama bin Laden by a raiding party does not bring closure to terrorism.

It has more to do with the Wild West history of America. The correct procedure would have been to notify the Pakistan government for it to arrest him.

Then the US could have applied for extradition so he could stand trial for his part in the attack on the Twin Towers.

G Bulmer, Billingham.

SUSAN WILLIS, referring to the killing of bin Laden, talks about “novel situations” and “novel responses” in her recent letter (HAS, May 9).

In fact, the targeted assassination of your enemy in a foreign land, without due process of law, is as old as the hills.

Mossad assassinated a Hamas leader in a Dubai hotel bedroom and a Russian agent was killed by radioactive poisoning here in London.

If such “novel responses” are commendable and become the norm, the world will become a much more frightening place.

Rose Reeve, Durham.