An antibacterial antisense conjugate and method of using the same for treating a bacterial infection in a mammalian host are disclosed. The conjugate includes an antisense oligonucleotide conjugated to a carrier peptide that significantly enhances the antibacterial activity of the oligonucleotide. The antisense oligonucleotide contains 10-20 nucleotide bases and has a targeting nucleic acid sequence complementary to a target sequence containing or within 10 bases, in a downstream direction, of the translational start codon of a bacterial mRNA that encodes a bacterial protein essential for bacterial replication, where the compound binds to a target mRNA with a Tm of between 50° to 60° C. The carrier peptide is an arginine-rich peptide containing between 6 and 12 amino acids.