Extra troops have been drafted into part of the northern Indonesian province of Aceh after villagers, some armed with machetes, tortured and killed at least five soldiers.

The victims were taken from a bus in the village of Lhok Nibung.

The head of the Indonesian armed forces, General Wiranto, blamed separatists seeking to free the strongly-Islamic province from central government control.

And in a second confrontation with the army in Aceh, a crowd of about a-thousand people set fire to a police station and attacked a military post near the industrial town of Lhokseumawe.

There are no reports of casualties.

The BBC South East Asia correspondent says hostility towards the army in Aceh is strong on account of the brutal military suppression in the area in recent years.