Hey there from CNN, I'm David Rind with the five things you need to know for Thursday,

March 19th.

What exactly did the U.S. know before Israel's strike on Iranian gas fields yesterday?

Those strikes on the South Pars, the world's largest natural gas field, was seen as a major

escalation and prompted a retaliatory strike from Iran on energy facilities

in Qatar, which sent global oil and natural gas prices even higher. President Donald Trump

said in the truth social post last night that the U.S. knew nothing about it. But an Israeli source

familiar with the attack told CNN that Israel had carried out the attack in coordination with the U.S.

A U.S. source also told CNN that the

U.S. was aware of the strike. Today, we've struck over 7,000 targets across Iran and its

military infrastructure. That is not incremental. That is overwhelming force applied with precision.

And again, today will be the largest strike package yet, just like yesterday was.

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Pete Hegeseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General

Dan Kane brief reporters today, they did not address the strikes on the gas fields, but said they

are, quote, on plan for the war, but that plan still does not have a clear end date.

Hegseth also notably did not deny a report from the Washington Post that the Pentagon has

asked the White House to approve a more than $200 billion funding request to Congress for

the war.

I think that number could move, obviously.

It takes money to kill bad guys. When we come back, they're calling it a war within a war, but to the Lebanese, it's just war.

Full stop.

What its prime minister is telling us, stick around.

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