A huge fuel depot in Libya's capital was burning out of control today, set ablaze in fighting between rival militias that has driven the country to chaos.

Three years after the NATO-backed revolt that toppled Muammar Gaddafi, two rival brigades of former rebels fighting for control of Tripoli International Airport have pounded each other's positions with Grad rockets, artillery fire and cannon for two weeks, turning the south of the capital into a battlefield.

The blaze was ignited by a missile strike that hit millions of litres of fuel.

Foreign governments have looked on powerless as anarchy sweeps across the North African oil producer. Western countries have urged their nationals to leave, shut their embassies and pulled diplomats out, after two weeks of clashes among rival factions of former rebels killed nearly 160 people in Tripoli and the eastern city of Benghazi.