The Insurgent reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Insurgent

A person who rises up against an enforced or established authority, government, administration etc.

• A rebel.
• A freedom fighter.
• Member of popular uprising.

Also subversive, insurrectionist, mutineer, guerilla, irregular.

In current use an insurgent is distinct from a terrorist as in "under threat from insurgents and terrorists".

The term is inherently political and is difficult to use without taking a political position. When used by an authority under threat, insurgent infers an illegitimacy of cause upon those rising up. Whereas those rising up will see the authority itself as being illegitimate. For a more detailed discussion of this see freedom fighter.

Insurgent has come into popular use during 2003 through its use by western politicians and mainstream media to describe those in resistance to the United States coalition in Iraq.

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