Photos posted by SANA showed the charred and mangled shells of several cars beside demolished cinder block walls.
An opposition activist who said he had watched government forces swarm the scene 10 minutes after the blast said the attack could have been carried out by security personnel to discredit the opposition.
"I don't think the opposition would attack Christians," said the activist, who did not want to be identified out of safety concerns.
"They are trying to win them over. I blame the shabiha and the regime forces for this explosion," he added. "It is planned by them." The shabiha are pro-government militiamen.
Earlier in the day, three members of a family, including a young girl, were injured by a bomb attached to their car in the same area, SANA reported.
A spokesman for the Free Syrian Army denied the rebel force had any involvement in the blasts. "The regime is trying to create sectarian discord," Col. Aref Hammoud said. "They want to send a message that if we go, these minorities are in danger."
The Syrian military offensive in Damascus and the areas encircling the capital has ramped up significantly in the past week, killing hundreds of civilians, opposition groups claim. On Saturday, at least 320 people were killed in the southwestern suburb of Daraya, opposition groups said, describing it as a mass killing in which bodies had been left strewn in the streets and clustered in homes.
The deadly offensive does not appear to be easing up. Government helicopters dropped thousands of leaflets over Damascus and its suburbs Tuesday, warning rebel fighters to lay down arms or face "inevitable death," the Associated Press reported.
As the violence in Damascus has escalated, the fighting in Aleppo, Syria's largest city and its commercial hub, appears to have hit a stalemate as government forces have not been able to overrun some key neighborhoods where rebels are hunkered down.
Still, the Syrian military kept up its offensive in other parts of the country. A series of airstrikes in the western city of Kafr Nabel on Tuesday left at least 23 dead, according to the Local Coordination Committees activist network.
Video that appeared to be have been taken shortly after the attack in Damascus on Tuesday shows several cars on fire in the middle of rubble-strewn streets as groups of men carry wounded people covered in blood from the scene.
On Monday, the United States declined to endorse a call by French President Francois Hollande for the Syrian rebels to form a provisional government to be given international recognition. Hollande, the first Western leader to seek a shadow government in Syria, said he hoped that global unity would heighten the pressure on President Bashar al-Assad to step down.
Ahmed Ramadan and Suzan Haidamous contributed to this report.
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