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Cmdr. Jeffrey Self, of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, flanked to his left by Acting Chief Patrol Agent Manuel Padilla, releases a statement on Friday, Oct. 5, 2012, at the Tucson Sector Headquarters in Tucson, Ariz.  (AP Photo/Arizona Daily Star, Mike Christy)

A preliminary investigation has found friendly fire likely was to blame in a shooting that killed one federal agent and wounded another along the Arizona-Mexico border, the FBI said Friday, shaking up the probe into an incident that reignited the political debate over border security.

"There are strong preliminary indications that the death of United States Border Patrol Agent Nicholas J. Ivie and the injury to a second agent was the result of an accidental shooting incident involving only the agents," FBI Special Agent in Charge James L. Turgal Jr. said in a statement.

Turgal didn't elaborate on the agency's conclusions but said the FBI is using "all necessary investigative, forensic and analytical resources" as it investigates the Tuesday shooting about eight kilometres north of the border near Bisbee.

Ivie was killed after he and two other agents responded to an alarm triggered by a sensor aimed at detecting smugglers and others entering the U.S. illegally.

One of the other agents was shot in the ankle and buttocks, but was released from the hospital after surgery. The third agent was uninjured.

The Cochise County Sheriff's Office, which is assisting the FBI in the probe, said federal investigators used ballistic testing to determine the shootings likely were the result of so-called friendly fire among the agents.

Jeffrey D. Self, commander of Customs and Border Protection's Joint Field Command-Arizona, said investigators were making progress and noted the initial findings that the shootings appeared to be accidental didn't diminish the fact that Ivie "gave the ultimate sacrifice and died serving his country."

"The fact is, the work of the Border Patrol is dangerous," Self said during a news conference Friday in Tucson.

While federal authorities declined to offer details of the shooting, George McCubbin, president of the National Border Patrol Council, said the three agents split up as they investigated the sensor alarm, noting they all fired their weapons.

"Coming in from different angles, that is more than likely how it ended up happening," McCubbin told The Arizona Republic of the shootings.

Twenty-six Border Patrol agents have died in the line of duty since 2002.

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Associated Press writers Brian Skoloff in Phoenix, Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Olga R. Rodriguez in Mexico City contributed to this report.