MOSUL, Iraq, March 12 (UPI) -- In a city known as al-Qaida's last urban stronghold, fear of sudden death dictates how people live their daily lives. For 21 men condemned to death by terrorists here, survival has come down to a dingy, bullet-scarred building on Mosul's eastern outskirts.

Yarub Alsaleem, who survived rocket attacks on his office, is one of the condemned. So are Mustapha al-Sheh, whose car was riddled with bullets while driving down the street, and 30-year-old Khalid al Jahboor, whose family was told in a telephone call that he was to be home for beheading on a certain night or the entire family would die in his place.

"There is a ceiling of fear above our heads and the heads of the people of Mosul," said Yarub, 40. "But what can we do? This is what we know. This is our job."

Yarub is the general manager of IMN-Mosul, a television and radio station whose broadcasts can be seen and heard in villages as much as 60 miles away. Its parent is the Iraq Media Network in Baghdad, a news and entertainment organization founded after the fall of Saddam Hussein and believed to be U.S.-funded.

According to figures from the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalist, Yarub and his colleagues are high risk. Since 2003, 127 journalists and 50 of their support personnel have been killed in the ongoing violence. The vast majority have been Iraqis. At least 78 were murdered.