By Guled Mohamed and Ibrahim Mohamed

MOGADISHU, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Gunmen shot dead a top clan leader and key player in efforts to bring peace to Somalia's warring factions on Saturday, the first time a senior clan elder has been killed in living memory, witnesses said.

Maalim Harun Maalim Yusuf was shot twice in the head by three men armed with pistols outside his house in northern Mogadishu, his wife Madina Guled Mahamed told Reuters on Sunday.

Shoot-outs in Somalia's lawless capital have become increasingly common since allied Somali-Ethiopian forces seized the city from Islamist fighters, sparking a vicious insurgency.

But residents say elders are normally too revered to be targeted. Yusuf's shock killing has therefore sparked fears of bloody reprisals in a city teeming with semi-automatic weapons.

"One of the bullets penetrated through his head," Mahamed said in a low, hoarse voice as she tried to choke back tears. "He was shot as he knocked on the gate. We don't know why they killed him -- he was a delegate at the peace talks."

The elder hails from the same sub-clan as Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi. He was chief negotiator of a sub-clan of the Abgal clan at a reconciliation conference aiming to bring an end to the bloodshed in Somalia. Delegates said he was playing a crucial role.

Heavy fighting rocked Mogadishu's neighbouring Horuwa district hours after Yusuf was killed. Insurgents fired mortars at police who took up positions in either side of a children's hospital. (Additional reporting by Abdi Sheikh)

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