The jailed leader of Turkey's Kurd rebels, Abdullah Ocalan, condemned on Monday the killing of three Kurdish women activists in Paris, one of them a longtime comrade, the Anatolia news agency reported, quoting his brother.

"It was a very sad get-together," Mehmet Ocalan told reporters after a visit to the prison island of Imrali near Istanbul, where his brother, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), has been kept for 14 years.

More aid must reach Syrian refugees to meet "expanding needs", the head of the U.N.'s World Food Program said Monday ahead of a visit to camps in Turkey.

"This is a global crisis and we are working together to make sure that we meet the needs of those seeking our support," Ertharin Cousin said in an interview.

The Patriot missile system being deployed to help protect Turkey from any spillover of the conflict in neighboring Syria should be operational by early February, perhaps sooner, NATO said Monday.

A NATO spokesperson said transport of troops and material got underway in early January and would continue over the next few weeks.

At least 26 children were killed in violence in Syria on Monday, a watchdog said, fueling international calls for a war crimes probe into the 22-month conflict.

Reports of the child deaths came as Human Rights Watch accused President Bashar Assad's regime of expanding its use of banned cluster bombs.

The Senior Adviser to the Turkish President Abdullah Gul, Arshad Hurmuzlu, stressed on Monday that the case of the kidnapped Lebanese pilgrims in Syria is a local affair, pointing out that efforts are ongoing to free the men.

“It is wrong to deal with the case on the basis that it's a Lebanese-Turkish affair,” Hurmuzlu told An Nahar newspaper.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on France on Saturday to "immediately" clarify the killing of three Kurdish activists who were shot dead in Paris, while asking French President Francois Hollande to explain why he was meeting with members of the outlawed PKK.

"France must immediately clarify this incident," Erdogan said in televised remarks. "Also, the French head of state must explain immediately to the French, Turkish and world public why ... he is in communication with these terrorists," he added.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel revealed that he will head to Doha on Tuesday to discuss with his Qatari counterpart, Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalid al-Thani, the case of the abducted Lebanese pilgrims in Syria's Aazaz.

“I will discus with the Qatari interior minister the case of the remaining nine abductees and the role that his country can play to release the men,” Charbel said in comments to Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) on Saturday.

Turkey said Friday it has postponed an order to purchase its first two U.S.-made F-35 fighter jets due to technical problems and rising costs, but said it still intends to buy 100 more in the long run.

"Due to the current state of the JSF (Joint Strike Fighter)...and the rising cost..it was decided to postpone the order placed on Jan 5, 2012 for the two aircraft," the Undersecretariat for Defense Industry (SSM) said in a statement.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) said Friday it would hold France responsible if it does not quickly shed light on the slaying of three female Kurdish activists in Paris.

"The fact that the attack was carried out in France is a clear demonstration of France's responsibility," the People's Defense Forces (HPG), the military wing of the rebels, said in a statement published on its website.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday the execution-style slaying of three Kurdish activists in Paris bore the marks of an internal feud, Anatolia news agency reported.

"The place was protected not by one lock but many coded locks," Erdogan told reporters, referring to the Kurdistan Information Centre where the three women were found shot dead before dawn on Thursday night.