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Two U.S. Border Patrol agents were shot, one fatally, Tuesday morning in an area in south Arizona known as a major drug-smuggling corridor, authorities said.

Border Patrol identified the slain agent as 30-year-old Nicolas Ivie.

The shooting occurred at the Brian Terry Station near Naco, Ariz., which is just south of Tucson. The station was named after an agent who was killed in the line of duty in December 2010. The area is considered a remote part of the state and sources tell Fox News that the shooting occurred at 1:50 a.m. local time and about 8 miles from the border.

"This shooting is a tragic reminder of the dangers the brave men and women who guard our borders face every day."- Rep. Darrell Issa

The agents who were shot were on patrol with a third agent, who was not harmed, according to George McCubbin, president of the National Border Patrol Council, a union representing about 17,000 border patrol agents. The agents were on horseback at the time of the shooting.

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Authorities have arrested two men in northern Mexico in connection with the shooting death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Arizona on Tuesday, according to news reports, although their capture remains unconfirmed by U.S. officials.

Agent Nicholas Ivie, 30, was killed and another agent wounded when they stopped to inspect a border sensor on State Highway 80, about five miles north of the Mexican border near Naco, Ariz., according to a statement from the U.S. Border Patrol. The Associated Press reports that two men were arrested in a military maneuver in Agua Prieta, Mexico; a police official in the northern Sonora state confirmed the report, the news agency said.

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The official says the probe is looking into whether the two men exchanged gunfire Tuesday in the mistaken belief that each was being fired on by a hostile gunman. The shooting occurred near Bisbee, Ariz.