A suicide car bombing in Damascus on Monday killed 19 people and injured many others, among them many in serious condition, Syria's state media and activists reported.
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement that the casualty toll reached 19 dead, including 15 civilians and at least four government troops, while 60 civilians were injured, DPA reported.
Syria's state-television put the death toll at 15 dead and 146 wounded, including women and children, in an updated casualty report of the suicide bombing that targeted the area close to Syria's Central Bank between the Sabaa Bahrat square and Shahbander Street.
Television footage showed bodies on the street and medical workers carrying the injured on stretchers to ambulances. Many buildings were damaged and cars were burnt in the explosion near the central bank building.
"This is what they call freedom," an angry Syrian woman at the scene of the blast told Syrian television.
The state broadcaster denied reports that there were clashes in the area and said roads were closed to pave the way for ambulances.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, the first since a blast killed 53 people in February.
Syria's Prime Minister Wael al Halqi who toured the blast scene pledged that the Syrian government is standing by its people and accused "the terrorist group Al Nosra Front" of being behind today's bombing.
The Syrian regime has long accused Muslim extremists linked with al-Qaeda of leading the uprising across Syria since 2011. Western powers have recently expressed their concern about the rising influence of extremist groups in various areas in Syria, especially in the north and areas near the capital.
On Sunday, Al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawhiri said in an audio message broadcast by Arab media that the fight in Syria should be in the name of God, urging the rebels to do all they can so that the "holy war and Jihad result in a Jihadist Islamist state."
According to UN estimates more than 70,000 people have been killed in Syria's two-year conflict, aiming to oust President Bashar al-Assad.
Meanwhile, Syria late Monday said it will not accept a chemical weapons team being assembled in Cyprus that UN chief Ban Ki-moon said could deploy within 24 hours to inspect for chemical weapons.
Syria last month had requested the inspection to investigate the alleged use of chemical weapons by the opposition in an attack in the town of Khan al-Assal near the northern city of Aleppo.
As it put together the inspection team, the UN made clear that it would investigate all allegations of chemical weapons use, not just those from the government.
Apparently dissatisfied with the broadened scope of the search, a foreign ministry source was quoted by the state-run SANA news agency as saying: "Syria regrets that Ban Ki-moon has yielded to the pressures practiced by countries known for their support to the Syrian bloodshed in order to divert the consultations in this regard from their real context."
The Syrian official accused the UN chief of requesting "additional tasks" for the UN team to deploy in all Syrian territories, indicating "hidden intentions which clearly violates Syria's sovereignty."
Syria cannot accept such "manoeuvres" by the UN, "taking into consideration the real negative role which it played in Iraq that paved the way for the US invasion" of that country in 2003, the source said.
Ban had urged the Syrian government to allow quick access for the team, since any delay would make it harder to find evidence.