There's yet another new name for ISIS among those fighting against the terror group. Daesh.
There is already some confusion in Washington about what to call ISIS. Barack Obama and other government leaders call the terror group operating in Iraq and Syria ISIL -- short for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. CNN takes a different tack, calling the group ISIS -- Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
But when Army L. Gen. James Terry, commander of the Combined Joint Task Force was speaking Thursday to reporters at the Pentagon, he referred to ISIS by an acronym for al-Dawla al-Islamiya al-Iraq al-Sham - 'Daesh'.
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"'Daesh' is a- it's a term that our partners in the Gulf use and in fact it speaks to a name that's very close to ISIL in Arabic and it also speaks to another name that means 'to crush underneath your foot'," he said during the press briefing, an update on the fight against ISIS.
The commander added that the coalition forces and interlocutors in the region prefer to use 'Daesh.'
"Our partners- at least the ones that I work with - ask us to use that because they feel that if you use 'ISIL' you will legitimize a self-declared caliphate, and it actually- they feel pretty strongly that we should not be doing that," he said.
Terry is not the first high ranking official to use the term. Secretary of State, John Kerry used it while testifying at a hearing on Capitol Hill last week. Meanwhile, others like the Pentagon spokesperson and Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel continue to use 'ISIL' when referring to the group.
"Daesh is why we are here," said Terry. "Daesh uses terror and fear to dominate people and reward themselves. It has demonstrated time and time again a disregard for life and humanity. It has also openly stated intentions to apply its trademark barbaric methods not only regionally, but globally as well.
In the briefing, he also confirmed that there have been 1,361 air strikes conducted against the group to-date.
