(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.