Car bomb blast near Damascus kills eight

A child and two women are among eight victims of a car bomb that has exploded near the Syrian capital Damascus, a monitoring group says.

Two bombs strike the Syrian capital Damascus, the first killing at least five people.

A car bomb blast has killed eight people, including a child and two women, near the Syrian capital Damascus, a monitoring group says.

"Eight civilians, including a young girl and two women, were killed and 13 others critically injured by a car bomb blast in Al-Nabak on the road linking Damascus to Homs," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Saturday.

"The blast targeted participants in an anti-regime demonstration," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

Amateur video posted on YouTube by activists and distributed by the Observatory showed a badly damaged white vehicle, with its side door charred and the back blasted away.

It was not clear who was behind the attack, Abdel Rahman said.