Five policemen killed, six wounded in Dallas shooting

DALLAS: Five police officers were shot dead and six wounded in one of the worst shootings of police in recent US history, by snipers who targeted them during rallies in Dallas held to protest against the fatal shooting of two black men by police this week.

Dallas Police Chief David Brown told a news conference that two snipers in elevated positions shot 11 officers, killing three, in what appeared to be a coordinated attack. Two others died later during the day at the hospital. Some of the victims were shot in the back.

Police said one suspect whom they had engaged in a shootout had been arrested and a bomb squad unit was investigating a suspicious package found near the suspect's location.

Police had taken three people into custody after the ambush shooting that took place on Thursday night. Police were in a standoff that has extended into Friday morning with another suspect in a downtown garage, where gunfire had been exchanged, officials said.

The suspect who later died due to a self-inflicted gunshot wound claimed to have planted "bombs all over the place". He told police that the "end is near" and that he will kill more policemen.

Television footage showed a heavy police presence, with officers taking cover behind vehicles on the street.

The shooting happened as largely peaceful protests unfolded around the United States after the shooting of Philando Castile, 32, by police near St. Paul, Minnesota, late on Wednesday. His girlfriend posted live video on the internet of the bloody scene minutes afterward, which was widely viewed.

Castile's death occurred within a day of the shooting of Alton Sterling, 37, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Sterling was killed during an altercation with two white police officers. Graphic video of that incident caused an outcry on social media.

 Flights over Dallas restricted after deadly shooting

 The US Federal Aviation Administration restricted airspace over Dallas.

"No pilots may operate an aircraft in the areas covered by this NOTAM," the FAA Notice to Airmen read.

"Only relief aircraft operations under direction of Dallas Police Department are authorized in the airspace."

The restrictions, which are due to last from 0335 to 1130 GMT cover a radius of 2.5 nautical miles.

"Racial disparities"- Obama

US President Barack Obama described the killings as tragedies.

"All of us as Americans should be troubled by these shootings, because these are not isolated incidents. They're symptomatic of a broader set of racial disparities that exist in our criminal justice system," he said after arriving in Poland for a NATO summit.

The use of force by police against African-Americans in cities from Ferguson, Missouri, to Baltimore and New York has sparked periodic and sometimes violent protests in the past two years and has spawned the Black Lives Matter movement.

Anger has intensified when the officers involved in such incidents have been acquitted in trials or not charged at all.

"I was already fuming when I woke up this morning over Baton Rouge, but for it to happen here again just pushed me right over the edge," said truck driver Thomas Michaels, 42, who was among the protesters in St. Paul.

"We live in a racist society where black lives don't matter, my kids lives don't matter and I'm sick of it. I don't even know if it can be fixed," he said.