The Multinational Peacekeeping Force, also known as the MNF, was an international military group consisting of forces from the US, France, and Italy, which was created in August 1982 to oversee the evacuation of thousands of Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) fighters from Beirut, Lebanon. In late September 1982, a second MNF force landed to help stabilize the Lebanese government and military and protect civilians following the assassination of the Lebanese President, Bashir Gemayel, and the massacre of hundreds of Palestinians and Lebanese at two refugee camps. The MNF was subsequently joined by Great Britain in February 1983.
After Doomsday, the remains of the MNF made attempts to contact people and assess the situation. What information they could gather came from regional radio broadcasts still on the air, shortwave, and the few military or civilian groups willing or able to respond. Reception was complicated by the static caused by the various nukes detonating in the atmosphere and the damage caused by the EMP. Reports were sketchy and fragmented, but confirmed their worst fears. Although Lebanon appeared okay for the most part, many countries were not. Cairo, Egypt and Amman, Jordan were destroyed. Israel had apparently taken strikes in a number of locations. Turkey and Syria had been devastated. They could not pick-up anything from Europe.
After over a week of no contact, the remains of the fleet arrived back in Beirut. The news was not good. The French and Italians had been ambushed by a submarine in the Gulf of Analya and the Foch, still limping from the attack on Doomsday, had been torpedoed and gone down. However, the submarine had been destroyed. The remaining ships had managed to rescue over five hundred survivors before deciding to turn back towards Lebanon. They were able to confirm a NATO fleet, including the British carriers Hermes and Illustrious, which had been in the Aegean Sea carrying out naval exercises, had been destroyed by nuclear air bursts. They had discovered a small group of badly injured survivors on a damaged frigate which had been on the edge of the blast zone and had managed to survive and head south. The rest of the crew had perished in the attack or died from radiation exposure. After recovering the men, they had sunk the damaged ship.
The second to arrive was the HMS Glamorgan. They reported making contact with Cyprus and confirmed the island had not been hit very badly, only suffering small hits on the two British military bases. After passing into the waters west of the island, they had been attacked by a Soviet frigate and although they managed to sink it, both ships were damaged in the process. Turning back toward Beirut as well, the HMS Brazen had succumbed to the damage inflicted on it and sank a day after the battle. The HMS Glamorgan was able to offload the surviving crew, who they dropped off in Cyprus before heading back to Lebanon.