Libyan women walk with their luggage as they cross the border at Ras el-Jedir Ben Guerdane, into southeast Tunisia yesterday.

Libya’s government said more than 20 people had been killed in the latest battles between factions seeking to control Tripoli airport yesterday, while fighting led to a huge fire raging nearby at the city’s fuel depot.

Rival factions allied to brigades from the towns of Misrata and Zintan have been fighting for nearly three weeks over control of the capital’s airport in the worst violence since the 2011 civil war that ousted Muammar Gaddafi.

A steady stream of foreigners have been evacuated from the North African state since the fighting began last month, and yesterday a Royal Navy ship took away around 100 British citizens, families and others from Tripoli.

It was quieter yesterday morning except for sporadic blasts. But eight gas tanks hit by a rocket on Saturday at a fuel depot near the airport were still burning, sending a huge pall of smoke over the capital.

Mediating committees are still trying to stop the violence and return Tripoli to normal

“Tripoli’s hospitals received 22 bodies (on Saturday) and 72 people were wounded,” Libya’s government said in a statement.

“Mediating committees are still trying to stop the violence and return Tripoli to normal. They have faced difficulties because of the stubbornness of the militias attacking the city.”

The Oil Ministry issued a warning that the burning fuel tanks could explode and called on the Health Ministry to be prepared in case of casualties.

Most Western governments have evacuated their embassies after clashes erupted in Tripoli and the eastern city of Benghazi more than two weeks ago, fearing that Libya is sliding back into civil war.

Britain, one of the last Western countries to keep its embassy open, said on Friday that it would evacuate its diplomatic staff to Tunisia and close the embassy today.

Britain’s ministry of defence said in a statement the Royal Navy’s HMS Enterprise arrived in Tripoli yesterday to evacuate British nationals and families. An embassy official said around 110 people were transferred to the ship.

Islamist-leaning brigades allied to the western port town of Misrata have been attacking Tripoli airport with rockets and artillery to oust rivals from the mountain town of Zintan who have controlled it since the city fell in 2011.

Misrata and Zintan rebel fighters once battled side by side to topple Gaddafi. But three years on they have refused to disarm and their rivalry has exploded in a violent struggle over who dominates Libya.

Libya’s government and weak military have been unable to control the armed factions, who often claim semi-official status approved and paid for by ministries, and control huge stockpiles of Gaddafi-era weapons, tanks and missiles.

Firefighters have been battling to extinguish the massive blaze at the fuel depot that supplies Tripoli and that has been hit twice in a week by rockets and shell fire. Fighting mainly has been restricted to Tripoli’s frontlines in the south and parts of the west of the city.

Fuel prices, though, have soared on the black market as fighting has caused fuel shortages.

Fighting with Grad rockets and artillery over Tripoli has closed the airport and prompted the United States, the United Nations and most European governments to pull their diplomats out of the North African state.