A general view shows fire burning at a fuel depot near the airport road in Tripoli yesterday. Photos: Reuters

Rival Libyan militias fighting for control of Tripoli’s airport agreed to a temporary ceasefire yesterday to allow firefighters to try to control a huge blaze at a fuel depot hit by a rocket.

Meanwhile in Libya’s second city, Benghazi, at least 75 bodies, mostly soldiers, were found after two days of fighting in which Islamist fighters and allied militiamen overran an army base.

The past two weeks of fighting have been the worst since the civil war that brought down Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, prompting Western governments to follow the US and the UN in pulling their diplomats out of the North African country.

Two brigades of former rebels, mainly rooted in the towns of Zintan and Misurata, have pounded each other’s positions in Tripoli with Grad rockets, artillery fire and cannon, turning the south of the capital into a battlefield.

At least 75 bodies were found after two days of fighting in Benghazi

But except for sporadic shelling away from the ceasefire zone near the international airport, yesterday was the quietest day in the capital for two weeks.

“Many mediators have succeeded in convincing the militias to stop fighting, at least temporarily,” government spokesman Ahmed Lamin said. “They are trying to get them to the negotiating table, we hope they will agree.”

France nevertheless closed its embassy yesterday and evacuated 30 French nationals from Tripoli, a few days after the US embassy evacuated its staff.

It was unclear if the blaze at the airport depot was under control yesterday.