The Bombardment of Chefchaouen was an aerial bombardment of Chefchaouen, Morocco carried out in the middle of the Rif War by a rogue American squadron in the service of the French colonial empire on September 17, 1925. Colonel Charles Sweeney, an American pilot who had served in World War I, proposed organizing a squadron of American pilots to assist the French in Morocco, to French Prime Minister Paul Painlevé, who "warmly welcomed the Colonel’s request." In Morocco, the American volunteers of the Escadrille Cherifienne were based in Beni Malek.