Syrian refugees lament late U.S. arrival

URFA, Turkey -- Most Syrian refugees who spoke to CBS News' Holly Williams on Tuesday as they crossed the border into Turkey welcomed the U.S. airstrikes in their home country, but many of them said they had come too late.

In less than a week, more than 100,000 Syrian refugees have streamed across the border into the safety of Turkey.

They have been fleeing Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants, who went on another violent offensive last week seizing dozens of villages in northern Syria and besieging the town of Kobani.

The refugees told Williams they were relieved the U.S. military had finally intervened in Syria's three-and-a-half year civil war, which has already claimed close to 200,000 lives.

Ibrahim Mustapha fled ISIS three days ago with his family, and told Williams, "we just wish Obama had started the airstrikes even earlier, maybe then we wouldn't be here."

During the bloody civil, war many Syrians have pleaded for U.S. airstrikes in their country; everyone from wounded fighters to the U.S.-backed opposition and countless refugees have told CBS News America should intervene.

But like Abdu al-Adekhani, who we met fleeing Syria last year with his family, they all had hoped for airstrikes against the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, which is not what began on Monday night.

"We are wish America (would) finish Bashar Assad," he told Williams.

Despite those pleas for help, the Obama administration was determined to stay out of the complicated Syrian conflict. That changed with the rise of ISIS and its rapid expansion to push its own violent form of Islam across the region.