New York: The Pentagon has issued a directive that officials should now use the more common term ISIS to refer to the terror group.
Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said the military "views ISIS, ISIL and Daesh as interchangeable terms for the same thing," reports CNN.
"ISIS is the term most known and understood by the American public and it is what our leadership uses. This memo simply aligns our terminology," he added.
ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) was the preferred acronym under the Obama administration, with a few exceptions, wherein the Arabic acronym Daesh was used. The 'L' stands for Levant, which is a translation of "al-Sham". Al-Sham refers to a region that stretches from Turkey through Syria to Egypt and includes the Palestinian territories, Jordan and Lebano.
CNN had earlier reported the Obama administration stuck to ISIL largely because the group set its sights beyond Iraq and Syria.
