WASHINGTON - A federal judge yesterday ordered the release of five Algerians held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in a major blow to the Bush administration’s strategy to keep terror suspects locked up without charges.

In the first case of its kind, U.S. District Judge said the government’s evidence linking the five Algerians to al-Qaeda was not credible as it came from a single, unidentified source. Therefore, he said, the five could not be held indefinitely as enemy combatants, and should be released immediately.