nick payton walsh for us in afghanistan tonight. thanks. stay safe. >>> now what you might call a tale of two serious. tonight an activist group is telling cnn at least ten people died in today's anti-government protests with clashes and security forces against the regime of syrian leader al assad, reported in at least six cities as well as some neighborhoods in the capital of damascus. yet in damascus itself, you might never know there was a crisis. the syrian government has finally allowed cnn crews inside the country. even though she's being supervised, she was allowed to talk to people after friday prayers. >> reporter: this young man just came out of the mosque and he said he doesn't want any trouble. they're a small group of pro government demonstrators expressing their support for the regime. this young man is saying people are paying money from out said in order to ferment this unrest. >> what kind of activity did you see in damascus today? >> reporter: really it's interesting, it's a tale of two syrias. over the last more than thre

watch this exclusive report from nick payton walsh.mbedded with troops in a taliban strong hold in kunar province on the border between afghanistan and pakistan. >> reporter: everywhere you look here on afghanistan's eastern border the choices aren't good. this outpost is caught between hills full of taliban. if the americans leave militants from pakistan will flow through the valley. if they stay then every few days this happens. [ gunfire ] >> reporter: mortars hit the base. the last attack was long enough ago there is panic. they are worried the taliban have been preparing a big one. after days of nothing the insurgents finally amassed around the compound and they are being attacked from all sides. >> come on, hustle up. grab it, get ready. >> reporter: first they use mortars but the incoming fire is very accurate here. >> fire! >> go, go, go! >> reporter: they arrange cover from heavy machine guns. >> grab the round. as soon as they go cyclic, drop it. [ inaudible ] >> oh! >> reporter: but the bullets are too close. >> never mind!

. >> joining me now nick payton walsh. nick, from your vantage point s afghanistan ready for a withdrawal of u.s. troops? >> reporter: in short, no. could really do with another ten even 30 years of american money, security, there has to be some kind of accommodation in the future between the afghan government and the insurgency. america can't stay here forever. popular support is vanishing. we don't know if that cooperation whether that will work or whether, as it happened in the past, lead to some kind of civil war. that's the deep concern here, joe. >> now, the united states has certainly had its share of tension and disagreements with afghan president hamid karzai. how is this announcement expected to affect that relationship which i certainly would call delicate? >> reporter: it's a very fragile relationship. a few days ago karzai was thinking of calling american forces here occupiers. he's got a domestic audience tired of ten years of troops on their soil, but no one is in any doubt that karzai is very dependent on am

nick payton walsh, cnn, afghanistan. >>> deep concerns about iran's growing influence as the u.s.ghanistan and iraq for that matter. we're seeing some disturbing new evidence that officials in tehran are reaching out aggressively to the leaders of afghanistan, the leaders of iraq, and pakistan. we're joined now by cnn's national security contributor fran townsend. fran, by the way, with more than 100 members of congress, some other former senior u.s. national security officials, has publicly advocated the united states take the iranian opposition group, the mek, off the state department's list of terror groups around the world. just as the european union has already done. fran, let's talk about what is going on. in recent days, the leaders of three nominal u.s. allies, iraq, afghanistan, and pakistan, they all went to tehran to meet with ahmadinejad, amidst growing concern, he must say, at least i'm hearing from some u.s. officials that when all is said and done, the dust settles in that part of the world, despite all the heavy u.s. investment, iran could emerge as the big strateg

nick payton walsh, cnn, kabul. >> if your choicedi

nick payton walsh got caught in just such an attack.h this. >> reporter: everywhere you look here on afghanistan's eastern border, the choices aren't good. an outpost is caught between hills full of taliban. if the americans leave, militants from pakistan will flow through the valley. if they stay, then every few days, this happens. the mortars hit the base. the last attack was long enough ago there's panic. they're worried the taliban have been preparing a big one. after days of nothing, the insurgents have finally amassed around the compound and beginning to attack from all sides. >> come on, hustle up. grab it and be ready. >> reporter: they use mortars first, aiming for taliban dug into the hills, but the incoming fire is very accurate here. >> go, go, go, go, go! >> reporter: they arrange cover from heavy machine guns. >> grab a round. as soon as they go psycyclic, d it. >> reporter: but the bullets are too close. locals scatter. just before huge american fire power has the last word. >> oh, oh! >> reporter: four massive air strike

we are going to get in touch with nick payton walsh. he is in kabul, afghanistan. you have been there on and off for the last four years. what do you think will happen if the u.s. speeds up its troop withdrawal? the congressional reports we are seeing here and sources within the military saying it could mean big trouble for afghanistan if, indeed, troops leave and the money goes. >> i think we are seeing in some areas of the country perhaps the beginning of the impact along the eastern border. they have pulled out of some of the less populated areas. there are reports that suggest that the taliban actually has found new safe havens there. separately, i think the most important thing is the message. effectively, you're saying to afghans, you have to choose a side in this that nato is not going to be here an awful lot longer. that leaves them with a choice. do you back the guys that say they are leaving or do you go with the guys that were here yesterday, here right now and will be here tomorrow? that's the taliban. frankly, leaving a much more difficult job for the

nick payton walsh is live in afghanistan where the presence began in 2001.s the news from the president's speech playing out the the there? >> reporter: that's a reality check on the ground here. people were watching it overnight. one said i have to get up at 6:00 a.m. and the president was talking at 4:30. privately we are hearing from people here of mixture of different personal reactions. his decision impacting personal lives. one saying i don't believe we should be leaving early. we should finish the job, stay here. the cost of the budget is not immaterial. the cost was on 9/11. another suggesting the job is being done since bin laden was killed. somebody else actually said go home as quickly as possible. karzai welcoming the withdrawal and hoping perhaps the afghan news could protect the country. i think also have to accept that without american backing and finance, the insurgency is a little weak. >> you still would have a pretty decent size presence after the surge is reversed. also, wouldn't there be diplomats? wouldn't there be american infrastructu

nate payton-w nick paton-walsh with the story. >> reporter: 368 people they say killed in this month, 82% of that number casualties attributable to the insurgency. this suggests really a large uptick in violence in the summer fighting season months as they're normally known. last may was the deadliest month for nato troops. a rise in violence, many believe that's attributable to different groups trying to show their supremacy in the months ahead. the taliban appear to be shifting their focus on targeted assassinations, to weaken the strength of the afghan government aligned with nato but really so many civilians caught in the cross-fire and the violence of the insurgency. many people are asking is this increase in violence going to affect the withdrawal of nato troops promised by the obama administration and the answer to that frankly is no. we are likely to see anything between the 5,000 the military wants and the 15,000 the obama democratic party hoped to see pulled out withdrawal at some point by the end of this year, and i think that's really changing the political climate here, p