armed rebels
Guerrillas opposing government
Armed rebels are members of an organized group using weapons to oppose a government or ruling authority.
The term appears constantly in news coverage of civil conflicts and insurgencies: Armed rebels seized control of the capital, Government forces clashed with armed rebels in the northern province.
Unlike terrorists or insurgents, the phrase carries relatively neutral connotations—describing the situation without necessarily condemning or legitimizing the fighters.
- insurgentsThose fighting established authority
- guerrillasIrregular combatants, unconventional warfare
- guerrilla warfareIrregular combat using ambushes
- militiaNon-professional armed force
- fightersThose who engage physically
freedom fighters · revolutionaries · uprising · resistance · weapons · AK-47 · jungle · no-man's land · combat · ambush · battle cry · camouflage · defectors · warlords · conflict · civil war · territory · outpost
- insurgentsinsurgent, guerrillas, guerrilla, resistance fighters, partisan
armed rebelsgovernment forces
Military under state control
security forces · federal troops · regular army · counterrevolutionaries · king's men
armed rebelsnonviolent resistance
Protest through peaceful means
passive resisters · political opposition · conscientious objectors · political dissidents · underground resistance
armed rebelscivilian population
noncombatants · innocent bystanders · war refugees · peacekeeping forces · peacekeepers
armed, rebels, rebel, arms, arming, unarmed, armament, armaments, disarm