The humanitarian group Medecins Sans Frontieres appealed Saturday for better access to those wounded in the conflict in Syria, notably in the second city of Aleppo.

"Growing insecurity around Aleppo undermines efforts to provide essential medical care," said MSF, or Doctors Without Borders.

The first of six batteries of Patriot missiles deployed in Turkey to protect against a spillover of the conflict in neighboring Syria became operational on Saturday, NATO said.

The battery, provided by The Netherlands, "will help to protect the (southern) city and people of Adana against missile threats," it said in a statement.

Britain on Saturday pledged an extra £21 million ($33 million, 25 million euros) of humanitarian aid to help civilians caught up in the Syrian conflict.

Some £10 million of the funding will help Jordan cope with the influx of thousands of refugees from across the border, International Development Secretary Justine Greening announced as she visited Jordan's main Zaatari refugee camp.

Syrian rebels freed more than 100 inmates as they battled against regime troops in a major prison outside the northwestern city of Idlib on Saturday, a watchdog said.

At least 10 rebels have been killed since Friday in clashes inside the prison, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists and medics across the war-torn country for its information.

Marada Movement leader MP Suleiman Franjieh repeated his support for the Orthodox Gathering electoral draft law, while voicing his wonder at President Michel Suleiman's rejection of it, reported al-Akhbar newspaper on Saturday.

He told the newspaper that Suleiman's rejection of the law is unjustified, noting: “He only opposed at France and Qatar's behest.”

U.S. President Barack Obama voiced support Friday for France's military intervention in Mali and vowed to work with French counterpart Francois Hollande to tackle extremism across North Africa.

The two presidents discussed other "shared security concerns," including Algeria, Libya and Syria, during telephone talks, the White House said in a statement.

The U.S. ambassador to Syria on Friday criticized Iran's "unhelpful" role in the Syrian conflict and appealed for more from Russia to help the refugees fleeing their war-torn homeland.

"Iran is playing a very unhelpful role in terms of moving Syria toward a political transition that its people demand," Robert Ford told reporters in Ankara, a day after meeting Syrian refugees in a Turkish border town.

Violence showed no sign of abating on Friday on Syrian battlefields as protesters slammed both the regime and rebels fighting to overthrow it.

The regime's air force launched air raids on several rebel-held towns, including in Damascus province, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a broad network of activists, doctors and lawyers.

A 31-year-old man appeared in a British court on Friday charged with providing financial support and supplies to his brother and another man who face trial for kidnapping two Western journalists in Syria.

Najul Islam, from east London, has been charged with assisting his brother Shajul Islam, a British trainee doctor, Jubayer Chowdhury and others to engage in acts of terrorism, police said in a statement.

Jordan's King Abdullah II on Friday called on the international community to increase its assistance for the tide of refugees fleeing the conflict in Syria.

"I urge once more a stepped-up world response to the Syrian crisis," he told the World Economic Forum in Davos.