Syrian border guards have turned away a protest convoy of about 150 Syrian expatriates attempting to cross from Turkey into Syria to deliver blankets, medicine and food to people affected by the government's crackdown on protests Al Jazeera reported
"The Syrian government said no to medical supplies, no to doctors who would go in to treat the wounded, and they said no to food. They said no to everything," said Belal Dalati, a 42-year-old Syrian businessman from California, after a delegation from the convoy was denied entry.
The activists, brought together by a campaign on the social networking website Facebook, had left the southeastern city of Gaziantep in buses and cars earlier on Thursday.
Finding their way blocked at the Oncupinar border crossing, about 15km south of the Turkish town of Kilis, the activists in the "Freedom Convoy to Syria" set up a camp on a muddy basketball pitch.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Muhyedin Lazikani, a Syrian writer taking part in the convoy, said: "We come with food, medicine, blankets, to give to the people under siege in Syria.
"We are ready to put our tents up and stay here as long as it takes."
The UN estimates more than 5,000 people have been killed during a crackdown by the Syrian authorities on an uprising against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.
Syria says it is fighting foreign-backed "terrorists" and that 2,000 soldiers and police have been killed.
Dalati said his cousin had been shot dead in the Syrian town of Zabadina, near the Lebanese border last week.
"We are watching people dying, women, children and the elderly too are getting killed in this conflict ... just because
the regime wants to stay in power," he said.
"We are calling for foreign military intervention, creating a safe zone for people to flee and for a free army to be organised."
Turkey's foreign ministry told the Reuters news agency that it had been in touch with people in the convoy but did not say whether Ankara supported the campaign.
Turkish criticism
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticised Syria's crackdown on protests, calling on former ally Assad to step down and slapping sanctions on Damascus.
Turkey, which shares a 900km long border with Syria, is hosting several thousand refugees, including members of the rebel Syrian Free Army, at camps, while the opposition Syrian National Council meets regularly in Istanbul.
Convoy member Samir Jisri, a 35-year-old computer graphics teacher from Toronto, said he wanted to return to the country he left as an infant.
"The Syrian revolution is an orphaned revolution because nobody is sticking up for it, not even the Arab League," he said.
The last hope we have is Turkey."
Moayad Skaif, a 30-year-old Syrian journalist from Qatar, who was on one of the coaches, said: "We want to go to Syria to show to the whole world what is happening in Syria. Assad does not want the truth to come out."
Journalist killed
Meanwhile, the death of a French TV cameraman during a government-sponsored trip to Syria has renewed calls for an independent assessment of the violent conflict in the country, as the government and the opposition traded blame.
The French government, human rights groups and the opposition demanded an independent investigation into the killing of Gilles Jacquier while filming a pro-government rally in the restive city of Homs Wednesday.
Jacquier, who worked for France-2 Television, became the first Western journalist to be killed in the 10-month-old Syrian uprising.
He was among a group of 15 journalists on the government trip when they were hit by several grenades, and his death was likely to become a rallying cry for both sides.
Separately, the Arab League announced that it was delaying sending more monitors to the country after an attack on its team this week.
The Arab League currently has 165 observers in Syria, and recently said it would increase the numbers.
Late on Wednesday, the Arab League said it was postponing a decision to send more observers to Syria after 11 of its monitors were injured in an attack earlier this week.
"The Arab League will not send more observers to Syria for the time being until the situation calms down," an unnamed official of the regional bloc told Al Jazeera.
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