Another group concerned with the protection of journalists, Reporters Without Borders, said in a statement Friday that Robert Menard, the Paris-based group's secretary general, has urged Iraqi President Jalal Talabani to go after those responsible for the murder of journalists in Iraq.

Menard, who was in Iraq this week, also complained that Iraqi security forces and the U.S. military had produced no evidence against eight Iraqi journalists in detention on suspicion of having terror links.

A series of kidnappings and other attacks on foreign journalists has driven many out of the country. The tenuous security means that those who stayed have had to restrict their movements and operate from heavily fortified compounds.

"We could have asked for army or police protection but that would have associated us too closely to the government," said Youssef, the Radio Dijla director.

The station, which was on the air for nearly 20 hours every day, had a nine-man security team of which six were on duty at any given time. On the morning of the attack, three employees were driving to work when suspected kidnappers traveling in two sedan cars tried to cut them off.

The driver managed to evade them, and all four arrived safely at work.

The attack on the station began hours later, at about 2:10 p.m. Veteran radio host Siham Mustpaha had just wrapped up a 40-minute program marking World Press Freedom Day, and the station was broadcasting a news bulletin.

When militants armed with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades stormed the offices, the radio quickly went off the air without an announcement.

While Youssef and several security guards fought back, the roughly 25 other workers in the building frantically sought help in endless calls to the police and army headquarters, personal contacts in the security forces and the "130" emergency number splashed over thousands of giants billboards and posters across the city.

Help was on the way, they were told.

A major Iraqi army checkpoint a mere 500 yards away failed to respond even though the boom of the grenades should have been loud and clear.

Finally _ 50 minutes after the attack began _ an army force came to their rescue.

The battle appears to have further bonded Radio Dijla's mixed Shiite and Sunni work force of about 60.

"The men were ready to sacrifice themselves to protect the women and children," Mustpaha said.

The solidarity is raising hopes that the staff will soon relaunch the station, whose name is Arabic for Tigris.

Youssef and the radio's London-based founder Ahmed al-Rikabi are searching for a new and safer location.

Meantime, Radio Dijla news has been available on its Web site with this defiant message: "Soon, we will be back to prove that the water of the Tigris can never dry up."

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