Afghans roll out 'war rugs' to reflect decades of conflict

More than three decades of war have damaged Afghanistan's once-thriving carpet industry, but weavers are tapping into the bloody past to boost their fortunes with "war rugs" depicting guns, tanks and warplanes.

On Chicken Street, the best-known street in Afghanistan during the "hippie trail" tourist days of the late 1960s and 1970s, some of the carpets in the shops look like pages of the country's war-torn history.

Since the Soviet Union invaded in 1979, Afghanistan has been in a state of near-constant conflict, and this strife is woven into the fabric - literally - of the woolen rugs.