ivan watson is talking to the families struggling to zur vooif. to warn you that some of these images are pretty disturbing. >> reporter: they live almost hidden in the olive groves. syrian families sleeping in the dirt. over the last month, a makeshift camp of more than 5,000 people has sprung up on the northern edge of syria. families made homeless by war. there are no toilets here. residents line up for water that looks hard to even swallow. water that this man has gotten used to drinking. >> i've been here from one month ago, one month, five days. living here under the olive trees. it's not nice. it's not healthy, also. >> reporter: why did you come here? >> i come here because my house is destroyed. there is no house for me. >> reporter: everyone tells stories of rockets and air strikes, artillery and explosions. this man fled here from the battleground city of aleppo. his 2-year-old daughter was badly burned when a bomb blew up his house last month. i try to ask her how are you. she's deaf now? she can't hear. the little girl has been deaf e

ivan watson told me he flew to turkey on a plane load just libyans on board that plane. so they are present. they are on the ground. but it doesn't mean al qaeda. and remember this, what was the fate of those in jihadist fighters in iraq? i saw them lined up on their knees with smuslims behind them respect forced to leave or killed outright. >> and of course the obama administration has sai syrians should determine their own future. but should the u.s. be concerned about islamists getting in as part of -- >> it's too late. because when i talked to the activists in homs, for example, they said you have promised we'll get communications here. they did not get it. they haven't gotten anything. and they say we have to take help where we can get it. no no-fly zones, we're in a desperate battle for our lives, we'll at that time help wherever we can get it. >> is there any kind of barga bargainibargai bargaining chip the u.s. might have to reduce the influence of the islamists? >> right now i think time is the determining factor. how entrenched the islamists become, how many of

ivan watson, cnn, istanbul. >> want to bring in our journalist zed mercy. he is joining us by phone from tunisia, and tell what is is happening there. there have been reports that they've stormed the u.s. embassy and that there is a lot of confusion and chaos on the ground. what do you know? >> reporter: yes. i actually was there on the ground a couple of minutes ago where there were fierce battles on the ground between the tunisian police, the national guard, and some people even from the army who joined to protect the american embassy from the thousands of protesters that came to the area right after the -- you have noted that how many embassy in tumis -- it's a neighborhood that is not served by public transportation, so people immediate to walk and wave and wait the protesters came throughout the afternoon basically to come and attack the embassy, roadblocks set up by the tunisian police, the helicopter was basically touring the air, and ordering the protesters to move. in the afternoon basically around 3:30 p.m. local time, the protester got close to t

. >> ivan watson joins us live now on the turkish side of the border with syria. i've vivan, it's heart wrenchin to see those conditions and not to see any evidence of an ngo or a world body. is anybody trying to respond to these people and open the doors and let them in? >> i talked to turn kikish offis and they said they can't allow all these rev you few gfugees i they don't have enough camps. they're building more, but as the spokesman told me, he said we can't build catmps fast enouh to match the pace of the violence of the syrian regime against its own people. he insisted the turks were providing some food and aid across the border to this very camp, but it's definitely not enough for those 5,000 plus people there that were not international aid agencies on the ground there. they didn't have blankets or normal tents and they're only the fraction of the displaced people we saw. in a nearby village, there were hundreds of families in schools and mosques as well and the fear is the number could surge to 700,000 in the next three months. those numbers will swell

ivan watson is monitoring the developments from istanbul.ked the americans spent over $800 billion and a lot of blood in trying to ensure that iraq was somewhat stable. is this headed towards complete loss and a waste of our time and energy? >> reporter: well, it certainly doesn't look good. sunday's bombings killing 94 people at least, more than 300 wounded last summer as a result of similar bombings, the worst violence and death toll in nearly two years, and the country is locked in political paralysis as well. not only is the vice president a fugitive living in exile here in turkey and facing a death penalty, but also the government has been unable to come up with a deal between the rival sectarian factions and political parties to appoint the top three security posts, the defense minister, the interior instemin and the head of the secret police and intelligence agency as well. it does not bode well. there were efforts to get the parties around the table to work out an agreement. but this death sentence on one of the most prominent sunni