Kerry supports the executive mandate to attack ISIL. (Cliff, Creative Commons)

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry stressed in an interview with CNN on Thursday that despite bombing the terrorist group and pledging to "destroy" them, the United States is not actually at war with ISIL.

Instead, Kerry called current U.S. military action against ISIL as a "significant counterterrorism operation," explaining that the Obama administration's approach "many different things that one doesn't think of normally in context of war." He defended the administration's assertion that executive authority to pursue al Qaeda back in 2001 now applies to ISIL, since the origins of ISIL as an al Qaeda affiliate is sufficient to connect them.

Kerry is currently in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to enlist the support of Middle Eastern leaders to form a coalition against ISIS.

Read more at CNN.

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