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Pentagon: We Officially Call Them ISIS, Not ISIL

THAT SETTLES IT

Says ISIS, ISIL and Da’esh are interchangeable.

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Yuri Gripas/Reuters

The Pentagon issued a memo on Friday establishing the use of the acronym “ISIS” as the U.S. government’s official lexicon to describe the terror group. The Obama administration, including President Obama himself, uniformly used ISIL, which stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. A spokesman said the department believes ISIS, ISIL and Da’esh can be used interchangeably, but ISIS is the preferred acronym because it is the most recognizable for Americans. Others around the world simply refer to the group as IS, or Islamic State.