AMMAN: A car bomb explodes Monday in a religiously mixed district on the edge of the Syrian capital Damascus, causing casualties including women and children, state media and opposition campaigners said.

The Local Coordination Committees said ambulances were ferrying wounded people from the Wihdeh roundabout in Jaramanah after the blast. State news agency SANA said the wounded included women and children.

At least 12 people were killed last week by a car bomb in Jaramanah that targeted a funeral for two men killed by rebels in the area. Opposition activists said the two men were members of a newly formed state-backed militia.

State media said that attack was a terrorist act while opposition activists said President Bashar Assad's security agents were behind the bombing to sow sectarian strife in the district, inhabited by Sunni Muslims, Christians and Druze.

Mainly Sunni insurgents are waging a 17-month-old uprising against Assad.