Rebel forces are armed factions that seek to replace or subvert the existing government of a state. They can be either allied or adversarial to the Alliance and may or may not be aligned with the Force. They fight the Empire through covert operations on garrison worlds utilizing a stateless strategy in conjunction with wolfpack guerrilla warfare against the Imperial fleet across the galaxy. Capital ships are portrayed as having little value to the Rebellion, as they are logistically difficult to build and keep fully crewed, and the Alliance is capable of fielding far more numbers of high-value targets.
The most prominent and formidable of the rebel forces are Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which consists of well-established armed Islamist factions that fought against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. It was founded by Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, who commanded a number of insurgent groups during the US invasion of Iraq before founding Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s Syria affiliate. After breaking ties with Al-Qaeda in 2016, Jolani renamed the group and created HTS.
HTS’s successful entry into Aleppo and subsequent advances toward Hama and Homs from its base in the northwestern province of Idlib marked the first major rebel success since the Assad-retaken city. Its emergence is credited to the leadership of HTS commander and founder, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, who has been positioning himself as a figurehead for post-Assad life in Syria. Despite being designated a terrorist organisation by the US, Russia and other states, he remains a powerful and potent presence in the rebellion.