The Syrian state news agency SANA posted a series of gruesome pictures of deformed bodies and body parts strewn in cars and on the road nearby. They were the first bomb attacks in the capital since the start of the uprising against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad in March.
Residents nearby reported that their apartments shook and windows were broken.
Gunfire could be heard in the immediate aftermath, with some witnesses saying it came from inside the Directorate building itself.
Television footage showed medics wrapping bodies in blankets and smoke rising from the blackened buildings, and the charred remains of the cars.
The Arab League delegation was taken to see the wreckage shortly after. The US last night said the bombings must not hamper the monitoring mission.
A foreign ministry spokesman gave a figure of at least 40 dead and 150 injured.
He put the blame both on al-Qaeda and the opposition movement, which has been staging protests and whose Free Syrian Army is now conducting operations against military targets inside the country.
"The Lebanese authorities warned us two days ago that al-Qaeda infiltrated to Syria from Ersal (a Lebanese border town)," he said. "Freedom seekers should know that this is not the way to achieve democracy."
If the bombings were the work of the opposition, it would mark a significant escalation of its campaign and a rejection of calls by the Syrian National Council for a peaceful revolution.
The Free Syrian Army has claimed to carry out operations only in defence of civilians, and even notable attacks such as on an air intelligence barracks last month were subsequently justified as attempts to free prisoners.
It denied carrying out the attacks. "The bombings took place on streets that were closed off from early in the morning," one activist inside the country claimed.
"We think the bombing is a message to the Arab League to say it would be dangerous for them to go to the flashpoints in Syria."
Omar Khani, of the Syrian Revolution General Commission, said: "This came from inside the regime. We have two eye witnesses, who are still working in the regime, that are ready to name the officers who planned the operation.
"They will speak in court and give their real names as soon as we can grant them and their families full protection.
"The regime brought dead bodies from Idlib yesterday morning to Damascus, and bodies from Homs. They dumped them in the explosion area, and then made the bomb."
Similar claims were made by Libyans when Col Gaddafi held mass funerals of those allegedly killed by Nato air strikes earlier this year.
The attacks are likely to exacerbate a conflict that has spiralled out of control since the peace deal was first discussed eight weeks ago.
Opposition groups posted online yesterday the first videos of the dead of one of the worst massacres so far, when government forces allegedly shelled and gunned down more than 100 people near the village of Kfar Owaid in Idlib province earlier this week.
Almost 50 separate bodies are shown lined up inside a mosque in the village.
*Christine Marlow is a pseudonym of a Daily Telegraph journalist who reported from Damascus this week
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