(CNN) The man accused of killing eight people after driving a truck onto a New York bike path is a "soldier of the caliphate," the ISIS terror group said without providing evidence to back up its claim. 
 
 "One of the Islamic State soldiers in America attacked on Tuesday a number of crusaders on a street in New York City," the group's weekly al-Naba newspaper reported Thursday. 
 
 ISIS provided no evidence it had knowledge ahead of Tuesday's attack in Lower Manhattan or was involved in planning. ISIS did not claim direct responsibility, and the article did not give a name for the attacker. 
 
 Responding to the claim Friday morning in a series of tweets, President Donald Trump called the New York terrorism suspect a "Degenerate Animal" and said the US military had attacked ISIS "much harder" over the past two days. 
 
 "ISIS just claimed the Degenerate Animal who killed, and so badly wounded, the wonderful people on the West Side, was 'their soldier,' " he tweeted. 
 
 "Based on that, the Military has hit ISIS 'much harder' over the last two days. They will pay a big price for every attack on us!" 
 
 ISIS just claimed the Degenerate Animal who killed, and so badly wounded, the wonderful people on the West Side, was "their soldier." ..... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 3, 2017 
 
 ...Based on that, the Military has hit ISIS "much harder" over the last two days. They will pay a big price for every attack on us! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 3, 2017 
 
 He doubled down on those comments while speaking to reporters Friday morning at the White House. 
 
 "What we are doing is every time we are attacked from this point forward, and it took place yesterday, we are hitting them 10 times harder," Trump said. 
 
 Earlier this week Trump had tweeted that suspect Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov should be executed. 
 
 "NYC terrorist was happy as he asked to hang ISIS flag in his hospital room. He killed 8 people, badly injured 12. SHOULD GET DEATH PENALTY!" the President tweeted Wednesday night. 
 
 But it was the first time the terror group had put such a claim in its newspaper before releasing it through its media wing, Amaq News agency, usually the first point of publication for claims of responsibility. 
 
 Suspect's link to ISIS 
 
 Suspect Saipov has told authorities that watching ISIS videos inspired him to carry out this week's attack and that he closely followed the terror group's playbook, according to a federal criminal complaint. 
 
 The 29-year-old Uzbek native was charged with providing material support to ISIS, violence and destruction of motor vehicles, said Joon H. Kim, acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York. 
 
 Saipov drove a rented truck down a bike path near the World Trade Center, crashed into a school bus and then jumped out, brandishing imitation firearms, officials said. New York police Officer Ryan Nash shot him in the abdomen, and he was taken into custody. More than a dozen people were also injured in Tuesday's attack. 
 
 An artist's sketch shows suspect Sayfullo Saipov making his first court appearance Wednesday. 
 
 He didn't enter a plea to the federal terror charges in his first court appearance Wednesday. 
 
 Saipov was so devoted to ISIS, he wanted to display the terror group's flag in his hospital room, documents show. He had about 90 videos and 3,800 images on a cell phone featuring ISIS propaganda, including video of a beheading, according to the criminal complaint. 
 
 No signs of radicalization 
 
 Those who crossed Saipov's path are trying to reconcile the man they met with the image of the one about whom they're now hearing. 
 
 Approached in the lobby of her Brooklyn apartment building, the suspect's mother-in-law, Nodira Agzomova, said she was in shock. 
 
 "I don't know what happened," she said. 
 
 Those who knew Saipov in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and in at least three states where he had lived since coming to the United States in 2010 said they saw no warning signs of radicalization. 
 
 "He was happy that he was here, he had a family here, and he was a truck driver and his business was really good," said Makhina Kadirova, a childhood friend. 
 
 His neighbors described him as quiet and said his family didn't socialize often. 
 
 Concrete barriers on bike path 
 
 The Lower Manhattan bike path where the attack took place has reopened, CNN affiliate WPIX reported, as New York started installing concrete barriers to prevent something similar happening. 
 
 The work started Thursday as part of a statewide review of shared-use paths, according to the New York State Department of Transportation. 
 
 Fifty-seven barriers are being positioned diagonally along the path, leaving enough space for bicycles, but not for larger vehicles, CNN affiliate WABC reported. 
 
 I guess that's one way to stop trucks from getting onto the bike path... pic.twitter.com/A8sjq1kXzP — 🚲 Jeff Jenkins 🚲 (@jeffwjenkins) November 2, 2017 
 
 However, some local cyclists said they think the barriers are problematic. 
 
 "There's no way two bikes can pass each other there and the runners as well," New Yorker James Petty told WABC. "There's going to be accidents." 
 
 Similar concrete barriers were placed in Times Square in May after a man drove a car onto a crowded sidewalk there , killing a woman and injuring at least 22 people. 
 
 Besides work on the bike path barriers, there are other signs that life's daily routines have resumed for many in the city. ||||| The Islamic State claimed responsibility on Thursday for the deadly Halloween day terror attack in New York City in the group's weekly newsletter, al-Naba. 
 
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 "On Tuesday, 11 Safar, one of the soldiers of the Islamic State attacked a number of crusaders on a street in New York City, close to the monument for the 9/11 raid, which resulted in killing and wounding more than 60 crusaders, and unto Allah is all praise," the newsletter said in a translation by SITE Intelligence Group, a company that tracks extremist groups. 
 
 It's unclear why the group claims 60 people were wounded or killed. The attack, allegedly carried out by Uzbek national Sayfullo Saipov, actually killed eight people and wounded 12 others, according to the NYPD. 
 
 The "11 Safar" is a reference to the attack occurring in the second month of the Islamic calendar. 
 
 The newsletter calls Saipov "one of the soldiers of the Caliphate" and claims the attack inspired "fear in crusader America." 
 
 "The grace of Allah, the operation instilled fear in crusader America, prompting them to increase security measures and intensify actions against immigrants to America," the newsletter stated. 
 
 Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images 
 
 Saipov, NYPD police have said, shouted "Allahu Akbar" -- or "God is Greatest" in Arabic -- after intentionally driving a rented truck onto a bike and pedestrian path in lower Manhattan just after 3 p.m. on Tuesday and running down 20 people. The suspect also left a handwritten note in Arabic at the scene saying ISIS "would endure forever," according to authorities. 
 
 "He did this in the name of ISIS, and along with the other items recovered at the scene was some notes that further indicate that," said John Miller, NYPD deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism. "He appears to have followed almost exactly to a 'T' the instructions that ISIS has put out in its social media channels before with instructions to their followers on how to carry out such an attack." 
 
 Authorities also reported Saipov had ISIS propaganda, including about 90 videos, on his cell phone, which inspired him to carry out the deadly attack. 
 
 APTV 
 
 The newsletter released Thursday also claims this was "one of the most prominent attacks to target crusaders in America" since Stephen Paddock is alleged to have killed 58 people in the Las Vegas shooting on Oct. 1. The FBI says it has not uncovered any connections between the suspect and any foreign terrorist groups. 
 
 "The FBI stated there is no apparent tie to international terrorism," one senior official told ABC News. "Perhaps ISIS is just trying to take credit." ||||| A New York City police officer used deadly force to stop a terror suspect Tuesday but did not kill him, raising possible questions about the final moments of an attack that killed eight people and injured 13. 
 
 Officer Ryan Nash, a 28-year-old who has worked for the department since 2012, shot suspect Sayfullo Saipov in the abdomen after Saipov exited his vehicle carrying weapons that turned out to be a pellet gun and a paintball gun. Saipov was wounded, and, as of Wednesday morning, was out of surgery and in custody at an unidentified hospital, according to CNN. 
 
 The NYPD patrol guide, which is posted on the department website, instructs officers to “apply no more than the reasonable force necessary to gain control,” and to use de-escalation techniques to avoid excessive force. Officers are trained to use minimal force to stop even potentially deadly assailants, but cops must make split-second decisions that require them to determine who is a deadly threat and who is not. Saipov’s weapons clearly suggested an imminent threat. 
 
 Many officers in similar situations have followed the patrol guide and shot, only to find themselves later charged with using excessive force. In the moment, the officer likely is not thinking about the ramifications of using deadly force, but scrutiny after the fact often centers on why and how the cop fired. 
 
 The NYPD did not comment for this story, but the head of a national police organization said it is premature to question Nash’s response to the attack, adding he followed his training to focus on “neutralizing the threat.” 
 
 “[Police officers] don’t go into it with the idea of thinking about killing somebody,” said Darrel Stephens, executive director of the Major City Chiefs Association, which represents sheriffs and chiefs of police in the nation’s largest metropolitan areas (including New York). “They’re thinking about neutralizing the threat.” 
 
 Stephens added that most police officers are trained to shoot “center mass” to stop a threat—meaning the chest area—because it increases the likelihood the shot will hit the suspect and stop them. That’s where Saipov was allegedly hit. 
 
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 A shot near the chest sometimes kills the suspect, but it’s not always the case. 
 
 Publicly, the NYPD is only hailing Nash’s efforts. At a press conference on Tuesday, New York City Police Commissioner James O’Neill commended Nash because he “stopped the carnage moments after it began.” 
 
 New York Mayor Bill de Blasio thanked the NYPD, “starting with the officer [Nash] who stopped this tragedy from continuing.”
– New York City terror suspect Sayfullo Saipov was allegedly quick to reference ISIS, while the militant group stayed mum. That's changed. Reuters reports the Islamic State claimed responsibility Thursday in its own Al-Naba paper for the attack, saying that the 29-year-old is "one of the caliphate soldiers." Although investigators are still looking into Saipov's background, the criminal complaint against him says he told officials he was glad he'd carried out the attack, gained inspiration for it by viewing ISIS propaganda clips on his phone, and wanted to put up an ISIS flag in his room at Bellevue Hospital, where he's recovering after being shot in the abdomen by NYPD officer Ryan Nash. CNN reports that ISIS didn't use Saipov's name in its claim and offers no evidence to back that claim up, including any showing that ISIS helped plan the attack or even knew about it beforehand. The site notes the wording is similar what it used after the Pulse Orlando shooting and a 2016 attack in Nice, France. CNN adds this is the first time ISIS has posted such a claim first in its newspaper rather than via its Amaq News Agency. Per ABC News, the ISIS statement also mentioned that the attack took place "close to the monument for the 9/11 raid" and, oddly, claimed that "60 crusaders" were killed or injured in the Halloween attack; the official count so far is eight dead, around a dozen wounded.