Cardassian Liberation Front The Cardassian Liberation Front , also known as the Cardassian Rebellion , was a popular uprising led by Legate Damar against the occupation of the Cardassian Union by the Dominion in 2375 . Although the revolt had little military impact and was quickly crushed by the Jem ' Hadar , the uprising nonetheless had a great effect on the outcome of the Dominion War by forcing the Dominion to divert resources to quelling the rebellion , just as they were poised to launch a massive assault against the Federation , Klingon s , and Romulan s . Ultimately , the rebellion allowed the allies to win the war at the Battle of Cardassia , although their actions would have devastating consequences for Cardassia Prime . Prelude . By 2375 , the Dominion ' s war effort against the Federation Alliance was settling into a bloody stalemate , with the tide steadily turning in the latter ' s favor . Damar , as leader of Cardassia , was becoming ever more frustrated with his Dominion allies , who had promised to return Cardassia to greatness but instead seemed intent on merely using Cardassia ' s resources to wage their war against the Federation and its allies . Initially , Damar tried to avoid his self - doubt by drinking excessive amounts of kanar and shirking many of his duties . ( ) Eventually , Damar could not ignore Cardassia ' s problems , and after an unexpected meeting with Dukat — his predecessor as leader of Cardassia , as well as a friend and mentor to Damar — he regained his confidence and resolved to win back Cardassia ' s standing in the galaxy . ( ) When it was revealed that the Dominion was negotiating for an alliance with the Breen Confederacy , Damar was shocked to discover that Weyoun and the Female Changeling were planning to give away Cardassian territories in order to convince the Breen to join the war . Damar ' s anger only grew further when Weyoun callously sacrificed 500 , 000 soldiers of the Eleventh Order on Septimus III , supposedly to force the Klingon s to commit more resources towards securing " a strategically worthless planet . " ( ) Military revolt . Finally , Damar could stomach the disrespect no further . He conspired with his friend , Gul Rusot , to launch a surprise attack against Rondac III , the Dominion ' s primary cloning facility . Together , Damar and Rusot recruited soldiers from the First , Third , and Ninth Order s and destroyed the Dominion ' s cloning facility . Although nearly half of Damar ' s troops were killed in the attack , the Cardassians were successful in launching a full - scale rebellion . As Damar announced the rebellion ' s success , he called upon Cardassians everywhere to resist : " " Resist today . Resist tomorrow . Resist until the last Dominion soldier has been driven from our soil . " " Damar ' s rebellion came at an incredibly opportune juncture , just as the Dominion was about to launch a massive assault against the Federation , the Klingons , and the Romulan s with the Breen energy dampening weapon , to which only the Klingons had developed a countermeasure . Instead , the Dominion was forced to turn their attention inward to try to crush the rebellion , which gave the allies valuable time to try to find a countermeasure for the Federation and Romulans . Furious with Damar ' s betrayal , the Female Changeling ordered the rebellion crushed immediately . Weyoun ordered Thot Gor , " " I don ' t care how many Cardassians you have to kill . Find Damar . " " ( ) Although Damar ' s initial assault had been successful , the rebellion faced many difficulties . First and foremost , the resistance had lost over half of its soldiers in the assault on Rondac III , and were unable to hold the planet against a Dominion counterattack . Damar and his remaining troops were forced to go into hiding at a secret base on Vanden Prime . Recognizing the danger if his infant rebellion were wiped out , Damar reluctantly asked the Federation to send assistance . Although the allies could not spare much material support , they did send a shipment of replicator s , along with Commander Kira Nerys , a Bajoran officer specializing in underground resistance tactics . Odo , a Changeling , and Elim Garak also accompanied Kira to Damar ' s base . Tensions were extremely high when the two sides met at Damar ' s base . Damar had previously served together with Kira under Dukat ' s command on Terok Nor during the Dominion occupation of the station , and there was no shortage of mutual loathing . There was supreme irony in the fact that a Bajoran was attempting to teach a group of Cardassians how to become resistance fighters , after the Bajoran Resistance expelled the Cardassians from Bajor seven years previously . However , both managed to put their personal feelings aside in order to fight their common enemy . On Kira ' s recommendation , one of the next moves of the rebellion was to decentralize Damar ' s forces into small " cells " spread around the Union at various bases , where they could launch small hit - and - run attacks against Dominion installations . A total of eighteen bases were established . However , Kira ran into more resistance when she recommended launching attacks on bases that were defended by Cardassian troops , even though they were troops loyal to the Dominion . Kira pointed out that anyone not fighting with the rebellion was helping the enemy , and that once the Dominion realized that Damar wasn ' t willing to attack bases that contained Cardassian troops , they would spread as many Cardassians as possible across every military installation in the Union . Reluctantly , Damar bowed to Kira ' s logic , and the rebellion launched its first attack against the Dominion - controlled garrison on Adarak Prime . ( ) A few weeks later , the rebellion launched its biggest attack yet , and destroyed the Tevak shipyards . Odo compromised the security protocols from the station ' s operations center , and explosives were planted in the station ' s dilithium storage facilities . The resulting explosion completely vaporized the shipyards . Following this incident , the Female Changeling ordered that Cardassian civilians be taken hostage in and around every Dominion installation . Furthermore , no Cardassian troops were permitted to board Jem ' Hadar warships while carrying weapons . Meanwhile , Starfleet was having great difficulty developing a countermeasure for the Breen energy - dampening weapon . Although Rusot objected to doing Starfleet ' s " dirty work " , Damar agreed to launch a raid on the Kelvas repair facility , with the goal of obtaining a functioning example of the Breen weapon to turn over to Starfleet for study . In the operation , Kira , Odo , Damar , Rusot , and Garak successfully boarded a Jem ' Hadar attack ship ( with Kira posing as a captured prisoner of war being taken to interrogation ) , and took control of the ship ' s bridge . However , Rusot pulled a weapon on Kira and proposed that he and Damar take the Breen weapon for themselves , and use it to restore the Cardassian Empire . With little choice regarding the situation , Damar shot Rusot , sadly observing , " " He was my friend . But his Cardassia is dead , and it won ' t be coming back . " " Ultimately , the team was successful in hijacking the ship and escaping to Deep Space 9 with the Breen weapon , where it was delivered to Starfleet . ( ) After handing over the Breen weapon to Starfleet , Damar went to Cardassia Prime for a secret meeting with Gul Revok and Legate Goris , who were offering to lend their support to the rebellion — a boost of over half a million soldiers to the cause . However , Revok double - crossed Damar and Goris by selling them out to the Dominion : Goris and his aides were killed by the Jem ' Hadar , and Damar ' s ship was destroyed in orbit shortly after Damar , Kira , and Garak beamed to the surface . The Dominion immediately announced Damar ' s supposed death to the population . The situation only got worse from there ; the Dominion managed to compromise the security of the entire resistance movement and in a massive coordinated offensive , all eighteen of the rebellion ' s bases were wiped out within a single day , bringing a sudden end to the military rebellion . ( ) Popular uprising . Although Damar was apparently dead and his resistance movement crushed , the Dominion was still unable to launch a full - scale offensive against the Federation and its allies . Diverting its efforts to crush the rebellion had drawn valuable resources from the front line and cost the Dominion ' s recent momentum . Furthermore , with the help of Damar , all Federation and Romulan ships were now immune to the Breen energy dampening weapons , nullifying the Dominion ' s final trump card . The Female Changeling ordered a withdrawal from all enemy territory and established a new tight defense perimeter within the Cardassian core worlds . The Female Changeling ' s hope was that the Allies would merely recuperate within their regained space , allowing the Dominion the chance to rebuild . In addition , the Dominion leadership believed that the Cardassians would submit once they heard Damar was dead and the rebellion was crushed . However , the Cardassian populace refused to believe that Damar was dead . Rumors spread like wildfire : " " Damar ' s alive — my cousin saw him on Kelvas Prime ! " " " " Damar faked his death ; he ' s plotting a new offensive from his secret mountain hideaway ! " " Kira realized that their resistance had actually turned Damar into a living legend , a new champion for a people tired of the Dominion and the war . To continue spreading the enthusiasm about Damar , the trio launched a small attack on the Cardassian capital city , destroying a Jem ' Hadar barracks . Appearing to the gathered crowd , Damar called upon everyone to rise up and fight the Dominion . ( ) Eager for success , Cardassians across the planet rallied together and planned for a series of major disruptions that would coincide with an all - out allied assault on the Cardassian home system . Power , transportation , and communications systems planetwide were all sabotage d , cutting off the Dominion from all ground support . In retribution , the Female Changeling ordered the destruction of Lakarian City by the Jem ' Hadar . In a matter of seconds , over two million men , women , and children were killed . Weyoun announced to the people that another Cardassian city would be destroyed for each further act of sabotage against the Dominion . However , the Dominion ' s punishment and the threat of further reprisals had the exact opposite effect — instead of giving up , the Cardassians only became more resolved to rid themselves of the Dominion . In space , as the Federation , Klingon , and Romulan forces fought their way towards Cardassia Prime , the Cardassian warships suddenly switched sides , creating mass confusion in the Dominion ' s defensive lines and giving the allies a chance to seize the advantage . Finally fed up with the unrest , the Female Changeling ordered that the entire Cardassian population be wiped out . As Jem ' Hadar troops began rampaging across the planet , killing every Cardassian they came across and demolishing buildings block by block , a few remaining resistance fighters , led by Damar and Kira , launched a bold attack against Dominion Headquarters . Bogged down near the building , the group was able to enter when Legate Broca ( Damar ' s opportunistic successor ) was brought outside for execution . Sadly , Damar was killed in the short but intense firefight in the building ' s cargo bay . His last words were an urge for everyone to keep fighting . The rest of the assault team took up the battle cry " " For Cardassia ! " " and fought onwards . Kira , Garak , and Ekoor managed to make their way into the command center itself , killing every Jem ' Hadar they came across and actually capturing Weyoun and the Female Changeling . Although she initially refused to surrender , Odo , having recently beamed down from the , eventually managed to convince the Founder that the only option was to stand down . The war was suddenly over . Although the loss of life was staggering — over 800 million people were killed before the Jem ' Hadar stopped their rampage — the rebellion was ultimately successful in freeing the Cardassian people from the Dominion . Despite the devastation , a new Cardassia would rise from the ashes of the old - one that would hopefully learn from the mistakes of the past . ( ) Known bases . By the end of the Rebellion , they were known to operate 18 bases .