(AFP) – HERAT, Afghanistan —

Taliban militants staged a daring prison break early Sunday when they blew up the main gates of a jail in western Afghanistan and freed 14 inmates, police said.

The insurgents planted a bomb at a gate of the main prison in Farah city, capital of Farah province, said Mohammad Faqir Askar, provincial police chief.

"Twenty prisoners escaped but we arrested six of them soon after the incident and 14 are still at large," he said.

Askar blamed the blast on Taliban militants who have been waging a bloody insurgency for almost nine years. He said four other inmates had been injured in the blast.

There are 400 prisoners jailed at the facility, he added.

In November 2009, 13 prisoners escaped from the same prison via a tunnel.

Up to 1,000 Taliban inmates escaped from Sarpoza prison in Kandahar city in June 2009 after a suicide attack blew open the front gates and destroyed the walls.