insurgents

also known as rebels, freedom fighters, terrorists, and guerrilla fighters, insurgents are defined by a U.S. Department of Defense publication as part of "an organized movement aimed at the overthrow of a constituted government through use of subversion and armed conflict." An insurgency differs from a resistance in that an insurgency connotes an internal struggle against a standing, established government, whereas a resistance connotes a struggle against invading or occupying foreign forces and their collaborators. When used by a state or an authority under threat, "insurgency" implies an illegitimacy of cause upon those rising up, whereas those rising up will see the authority itself as being illegitimate. William Safire, in Safire's Political Dictionary, shows the imprecision of "insurgent": "in a positive sense, a political reformer trying to win control of a party; less positively, a rebel or revolutionary seeking to seize control of a government; pejoratively, a euphemism for a terrorist." Know your insurgent.