U.S. Army soldiers carry the flag-draped coffin of fellow Army Staff Sgt. Ricardo Rodriguez, in Carolina, Puerto Rico (File Photo)

The year 2007 was the deadliest for U.S. troops in Iraq since the beginning of the war there, although violence dropped off sharply in the last six months.

U.S. commanders say overall attacks in Iraq are down about 60 percent since June.

The number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq peaked in May with 126 troops killed, and then declined to 21 deaths in December, the second lowest monthly total of the war.

For the year as a whole, 899 U.S. service members were killed in Iraq, surpassing the previous high of 850 in 2004. The military reports 3,902 service members have died since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Separately Monday, the U.S. military in Iraq said multi-national and Iraqi security forces rescued a kidnapping victim on December 26, who was being held in an abandoned house in the Saydiyah area of the capital.

In violence Monday, a suicide bomber exploded a truck at a checkpoint north of Baghdad, killing at least 11 people and leaving two missing.

Iraqi officials say most of those killed in the attack in the town of Tarmiya were members of a U.S.-backed security volunteer group. They say the dead also include schoolchildren.

In a separate incident Monday, Iraqi officials say a roadside bomb struck an Iraqi army patrol near the Iranian border in Diyala province, killing at least two soldiers and wounding two others.