HERAT, Afghanistan, April 19 (Xinhua) -- Three Afghan intelligence agency personnel were killed and two others wounded in a car bomb blast outside a provincial intelligence agency building in Herat city, capital of western province of Herat, on Friday, the agency said.

"A National Directorate of Security (NDS) technical team was defusing a found suspected vehicle roughly at 4:50 p.m. local time in Herat city. The personnel defused parts of explosives in the car, but unfortunately a blast occurred leaving the casualties," the NDS, the country's primary intelligence agency, said in a statement.

Unofficial sources said the exploded car was a military vehicle hijacked by Taliban insurgents earlier and security forces seized the vehicle Friday and drove to provincial NDS department before the blast that also destroyed the vehicle.