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Four men dressed in Mexican military clothing briefly held a U.S. Border Patrol agent at gunpoint early Sunday morning on the Arizona side of the Mexican border.

The incident occurred just before 2 a.m. near the international line south of Papago Farms in an area about 85 miles southwest of Tucson on the Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation, said Mike Scioli, Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman.

The agent was driving along the dirt border road looking for footprints when he encountered four men dressed in desert camouflage military clothes and armed with assault rifles. They pointed their rifles at the agent and yelled at him to stop and not to move, Scioli said.

The agent responded by saying in English that he was a Border Patrol agent. Then he said it in Spanish.

After about four minutes, the four men lowered their guns and crossed back into Mexico.

The agent did not get out of the car.

The agent had radioed for backup, and the arrival of more agents spurred the soldiers' retreat into Mexico, said Brandon Judd, vice president of Local 2544, the local chapter of the National Border Patrol Council, the border agents' union.

Judd's comments came after he was briefed on the incident.

Border Patrol officials are sure the men were legitimate Mexican military personnel, Scioli said.

The incursion occurred along a stretch of border marked by barbed wire fence, Scioli said.

But steel vehicle barriers that mark the border are within view of the area. The agency has no doubts that the four men were in the U.S., he said.

The international line is clearly delineated at the spot where the incident occurred, Judd said.

If the four armed men truly thought they were in Mexico, they wouldn't have run back to Mexico when the backup arrived, he said.

"It is very well-known where the United States and Mexico border is; there is no question about it," Judd said.

"Any Mexican military unit that is driving along the border is going to see the same markers as Border Patrol agents are going to see."

Incursions are a somewhat regular occurrence along the nearly 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexican border — 43 reported since Oct. 1 and more than 260 since 1996, Scioli said. But this incident stood out because an agent was held at gunpoint.

"Frankly, it scares agents," Judd said. "We are by ourselves, 10 to 15 minutes away from backup, and we come across Mexican military pointing guns at us. That's obviously going to scare people."

Scioli added: "Something like this could have gone ugly really fast."

The U.S. government, the Border Patrol and the Mexican government are investigating the incident, Scioli said.

State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said in Washington that the encounter "stemmed from a momentary misunderstanding as to the exact location of the U.S.-Mexican border."

In a statement, Mexican Embassy spokesman Ricardo Alday said in Washington that both countries were investigating Sunday's incident.

"It seems that there are dissimilar versions of what happened, and both countries are trying to clarify it together," Alday said.

"Law enforcement operations have led, from time to time, to innocent incursions by both U.S. and Mexican law enforcement personnel and military units into the territory of both nations, and in particular along the non-demarcated areas of our border," he said.

The characterizations from the U.S. State Department and the Mexican government that it was a "misunderstanding" frustrates agents, Judd said.

Mexican incursions continue to occur because the U.S. government never comes down hard on Mexico, he said.

"There needs to be a lot more cry from our government when something like this happens," Judd said.

"The State Department is supposed to be protecting United States' citizens, and instead they are making excuses for the Mexican government," Judd said.

"It's going to continue to happen, and unfortunately it's just a matter of time before one of us or one of them is actually shot."