Democratic presidential front-runner on Sunday refused to classify U.S. military action against ISIS as a "war" and at the same time admitted that the country was "not yet winning" in the struggle against the jihadist organization, which controls large swaths of territory across Iraq and Syria and has claimed responsibility for a number of recent terrorist attacks.

"We're not winning, but it's too soon to say that we are doing everything we need to do," Clinton told ABC's George Stephanopoulos, according to the network. "And I've outlined very clearly. We have to fight them in the air, we have to fight them on the ground, and we have to fight them on the Internet, and we have to do everything we can with our friends and partners to protect ourselves."

Asked to define the enemy, Clinton contended that the use of the phrase "radical Islamic terrorism" was not appropriate because it was unfair to moderate Muslims and acted as a recruiting tool for ISIS, which calls itself "Islamic State."

The term "doesn't do justice to the vast number of Muslims in our country and around the world who are peaceful people," the former New York senator insisted. "It (also) helps to create this clash of civilizations that is actually a recruiting tool for ISIS and other radical jihadists who use this as a way of saying, 'We are in a war against the West, you must join us.'"

Her objection to the term "war," meanwhile, was mainly on legal concerns, she told Stephanopoulos.

"Well, war is a very legal term as you know so well," Clinton said. "We are definitely in conflict with ISIS. ... I think we need a new update of military authorization, the (authorization for use of military force), which was passed after the attack on" Sept. 11, 2001."

As for the strategy she would employ if she were to move into the White House come 2017, Clinton said that she hoped to have "every tool at our disposal" in order to "dismantle this very effective, virtual, jihadist network."