NICOSIA Ñ Islamic insurgents slit the throats of five young women and killed another man in a bloody attack on a night club in eastern Algeria, eye witnesses said.

Eye witnesses said the 20 armed insurgents, members of the hardline Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, entered a night club in the town of Tebessa on Friday night and held up the patrons. After robbing them of their money and jewellery, they kidnapped five young women and dragged them outside. A night club patron who tried to flee was killed.

The bodies of the women with their throats slit were later found in the nearby hills.

Over the past two months, Algerian Prime Minister Abdul Bouteflika has been battling both Berber unrest as well as renewed Islamic insurgency.

In mid-June, Algeria's chief justice was assassinated by Islamic insurgents in an ambush in the Batna region about 430 kilometers east of Algiers.

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