There was "nothing civil about it". So, it wasn't a civil war?
Merriam-Webster defines war as "a state of opened and declared armed hostile
conflict between states or nations".
Lexico defines war as "A state of armed
conflict between different countries or different groups within a country".
While a conflict isn't always a war, a war is always a conflict.
If you're going to engage in pedantry, it should be worth the effort. War vs conflict really isn't, in my mind.