Jan 19 (Reuters) - The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said on Monday that an "armed group" was attacking Shaddadi prison in Hasaka in Syria's northeast where it said thousands of Islamic State militants were being held.

The SDF had said earlier in the day it was clashing with Syrian government forces near Al-Aqtan prison on the outskirts of the city of Raqqa that also held IS detainees. Raqqa was once the seat of a short-lived IS-declared "caliphate" in the region.

By Olivia Le Poidevin

GENEVA, Jan 19 (Reuters) - The U.N. warned on Monday that the humanitarian situation in Yemen is worsening and that gains made to tackle malnutrition and health would go into reverse due to funding cuts.

"The context is very concerning... We are expecting things to be much worse in 2026," Julien Harneis, U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, told reporters in Geneva.

US President Donald Trump's government has asked countries to pay $1.0 billion for a permanent spot on his "Board of Peace" aimed at resolving conflicts, according to its charter, seen Monday by AFP.

The White House has asked various world leaders to sit on the board, chaired by Trump himself, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Hungarian premier Viktor Orban and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

JERUSALEM, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday to shut a U.S.-led multinational coordinating centre that supports President Donald Trump’s plan to end the Gaza war.

Washington established the Civil Military Coordination Centre (CMCC) last October as a centre for civilian and military personnel from other countries to work alongside U.S. and Israeli officials on post-war Gaza planning.

By Karam al-Masri and Khalil Ashawi

RAQQA/ Syria, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Syrian government troops tightened their grip on Monday across a swathe of northern and eastern territory abruptly abandoned the previous day by Kurdish forces, in a dramatic shift that consolidated President Ahmed al-Sharaa's rule.

After days of fighting with government forces, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), once the main U.S. allies in Syria, agreed on Sunday to withdraw from two Arab-majority provinces they had controlled for years, including oil fields.

ANKARA, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Turkish security sources said on Monday that an integration deal between Syria's government and Kurdish forces marked an "historic turning point" ahead of which Turkey's intelligence agency played an intensive role to ensure restraint by parties on the ground.

The fight against Islamic State in Syria would continue uninterrupted, the sources said, adding that establishing stability and security in Syria was critically important for Turkey's goal of eliminating terrorism at home.

The hustle and bustle of buyers and sellers has returned to Khartoum's central market, but "it's nothing like before", fruit vendor Hashim Mohamed told AFP, streets away from where war first broke out nearly three years ago.

On April 15, 2023, central Khartoum awoke to battles between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who had been allies since 2021, when they ousted civilians from a short-lived transitional government.

Their war has since killed tens of thousands and displaced millions.

By Tamara Vaal

ASTANA, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev will join the "Board of Peace" proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump after accepting an invitation to do so and wants to contribute to bringing about a stable Middle East peace, his spokesperson said on Monday.

The board would be chaired for life by Trump and would start by addressing the Gaza conflict and then be expanded to deal with other conflicts, according to a copy of the letter and draft charter seen by Reuters.

Thousands in the United States staged large demonstrations Sunday denouncing the Iranian government's deadly crackdown on anti-government protesters in the Islamic Republic.

Several thousand people marched in Los Angeles, home to the world's largest Iranian diaspora, while several hundred others gathered in New York, AFP journalists in both cities reported.

US protesters could be seen carrying signs condemning a "New Holocaust," a "genocide in the making," and the "terror" of the Iranian government.