NAJAF, Iraq, March 26 (Reuters) - A ceasefire ordered by Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr remains in effect despite a crackdown on his followers in the southern city of Basra by government forces, a top aide said on Wednesday.

"The freeze that Sadr has ordered is still ongoing," one of Sadr's senior aides, Luwaa Sumaisem, told Reuters in the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf.

(Reporting by Khaled Farhan; writing by Peter Graff; editing by Ross Colvin)

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