U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of the Third Infantry Division, center, pays a Christmas visit to soldiers at Patrol Base Kelsey, near Latifiyah, about 20 miles south of Baghdad. 2007 was the deadliest year for American troops since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, with more than 900 dead, but officials expect a calmer 2008.

Washington ? Two statistics sum up the last year in Iraq: 2007 will end as the deadliest for American troops since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, with more than 900 dead. At the same time, December – with just 16 hostile-fire deaths as of Friday – very likely will be the month with the second fewest American deaths of the war so far.

Those numbers bookend a year in which violence against U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians began a dramatic, breathtaking decline after years of steady increases.

The decline in violence was across the board. The number of Iraqi civilians killed in Baghdad from bombings and explosions in December was half the number that were killed last January; the number of bodies found in the capital’s streets was down by nearly 75 percent compared with the beginning of 2007.

The year still had its spectacular violence. In August, the worst bombings of the war struck two villages in northern Iraq, claiming more than 300 lives. Three car bombs in Amarah, in southern Iraq, killed 42 people this month. The American death toll after nearly five years of war stands at 3,900.

The turnaround was unmistakable nonetheless during the final six months of the year, after the U.S. completed a controversial increase in the number of troops in Iraq by 30,000. The military and civilian death rate declined even outside Baghdad, according to American military statistics, dropping from a peak in May of more than 2,000 to just more than 500 in November.

Not all Baghdad residents are convinced that violence is becoming a thing of the past. They note that their city has been transformed into a series of segregated neighborhoods, with Sunni and Shiites afraid to cross into each other’s turf.

Nearly 4 million Iraqis – most of them from Baghdad – are displaced internally or have sought refuge outside the country. It’s unclear when they can go home; members of the opposing sect occupy many of their houses.

Thirty-five percent of the 1.5 million Iraqi refugees in Syria fled during the July to October period, even as violence ebbed in Baghdad, according to a recent United Nations survey.