Around 500 British police officers raided houses across the country on Wednesday in a major operation targeting people suspected of planning terrorist attacks overseas. They arrested eight people in early morning raids, seven in Manchester, northern England, and one in Merseyside, the area around Liverpool in the north west, police said. They later said they had arrested a ninth person and that one of the nine had been released. "An extensive operation targeting individuals suspected of facilitating terrorism abroad is under way," a police spokesman in Manchester said, without giving further details. Police were due to give a news conference in Manchester at 10 a.m. (0900 GMT).