A car bomb exploded in a neighborhood in Syria's capital Damascus Tuesday, killing at least three people, the government and activists said.
The state-run SANA news agency said the blast hit the contested district of Tadamon, which has seen months of fighting between the military and rebels seeking to topple President Bashar Assad. It said 11 others were wounded.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least seven people were killed and 15 were wounded. The difference in the death tolls could not immediately be reconciled.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Tuesday's attack, which comes amid raging battles between troops and rebels in several parts of the country. Extremist factions among the rebels have in the past carried out suicide and car bombings.
Tadamon is an impoverished neighborhood in the southern part of the capital. The area has changed hands several times between rebels and troops and has witnessed heavy fighting. It was not clear what the car bombing had targeted.
More than 100,000 people have died in the Syrian conflict, which began with largely peaceful protests against Assad's regime in March 2011. Since then, the conflict has turned into an insurgency and civil war that has also uprooted millions of people from their homes.