Death in Dallas; ISIS slaughter; NATO summit: HRW Daily Brief

In Dallas, Texas, armed assailants have opened fire on police at a peaceful public demonstration protesting US police shootings of black men. At least five police officers are dead, with more injured and in critical condition. At the time of publishing, the suspects have not been identified, but many now fear racial tensions in the US will dramatically increase regardless of which individuals are to blame. Islamic State has claimed another suicide attack in Iraq, this time slaughtering at least 35 people near a Shia mausoleum north of Baghdad. In Italy, a Nigerian asylum seeker who fled Boko Haram was killed in a racially motivated attack in the city of Fermo. Another indigenous-environmentalist activist in Honduras has been murdered. The killing of Lesbia Janeth Urquía this week follows that of award-winning environmentalist Berta Cáceres in March. With the NATO summit opening in Warsaw, Poland, today, rights groups are calling for the protection of civilians in the conflict in Afghanistan and the rights of migrants and asylum seekers on route from Libya to the European Union, among other issues. The United Nations Security Council’s renewal yesterday of the mandate for African Union forces in Somalia seeks to address the thorny issue of justice for abuses by AU troops. In Kenya, people are increasingly fearful of what are being called "police death squads". Recently, reports have suggested that police officers were involved in the abduction, enforced disappearance and extrajudicial killings of three men, including a human rights lawyer. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in South Africa today to meet with President Jacob Zuma to discuss cooperation between their two countries. One hopes that, among other topics, they find time to discuss human rights.