Just weeks after the U.S. humiliated Pakistan with the bin Laden raid, Taliban insurgents laid siege on a naval station Sunday night and left 10 soldiers dead. Ron Moreau and Sami Yousafzai on Islamabad’s latest humiliating defeat.

Last night, a well-briefed and coordinated team of about a dozen Pakistani Taliban gunmen fought their way deeply inside the heavily guarded Mehran Naval Air Station in the southern port city of Karachi. Armed with AK-47s, RPGs, hand-grenades, and prepared for a long standoff with food and water, the attackers destroyed at least two U.S.-made P-3C Orion maritime surveillance planes. Unleashing RPG fire, they damaged several other aircraft, igniting blazes and setting off billowing columns of smoke. The jihadists held off Pakistani naval and army commandos for some 16 hours before finally being overwhelmed. At least 10 Pakistani soldiers were killed.