The main Syrian opposition group´s choice of a Kurdish dissident as its leader reflects the pressures on it to address doubts that the country´s many minority groups share about the opposition.

The Syrian National Council, the main opposition group outside Syria, chose Abdulbaset Sieda, a 56-year-old activist who has been living in Sweden for more than a decade, on Saturday.

Western supporters of the opposition have been pressuring the SNC to present a more unified front against the regime. The group´s internal divisions have long been cited as one of the reasons it hasn´t received stronger backing, more money and even arms from the growing list of countries that have publicly said President Bashar al-Assad and his regime should go.

Differences between the Sunni Muslim-dominated SNC—where the Muslim Brotherhood holds significant sway—and representatives of minority groups and religious sects have been a long-running problem for the opposition.

On Sunday, a ramped-up regime offensive focused on Homs, the epicenter of the Syrian uprising, and Heffe, a town on the Western coast.

A battle was unfolding between rebels and government troops in Heffe, under bombardment by tanks and helicopter gunships for a sixth day, according to several activist groups. More than 100 people were killed in the violence in Heffe, at least 46 of them civilians killed in the bombing and 62 government soldiers in fighting with the rebels, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.- based opposition watchdog.

The casualties on the government side are the largest reported since the start of the uprising in the province of Lattakia, where the government has largely maintained control despite a combustible religious mix of Sunnis and Alawites in the province.

Minority groups worry they could suffer under a Sunni Muslim- dominated government that might follow Mr. Assad´s regime.

The regime is led by the Alawite sect, which makes up just over 10% of Syria´s population, and has touted itself as a protector of other minorities in the face of a Sunni Muslim majority in the country.

The regime has used fears of Sunni domination to rally support among minorities—including Kurds, Christians, Druze and Alawites—or to keep those groups from wholeheartedly joining the rebellion.

Simply naming a Kurdish leader may not be enough for the SNC to rally the support of many minorities. Among Kurds in Syria, even those who welcomed the move acknowledged its limitations, given the splits among the opposition and divisions within the Syrian Kurdish community.

"This affirms Kurdish identity but not much will change," said Ahmed Mousa, an activist from the northern Syrian Kurdish city of Qamishli. "Kurds won´t step in front of the cannon unless they get guarantees endorsed by the international community."

Abdul-Hakim Bachar, a leading member of the Kurdish National Council, an umbrella group of nearly a dozen Syrian Kurd opposition parties that was formed in October, said there "must be a pact that safeguards the rights of all components of the Syrian nation and offers them guarantees that change is in their interest."

"Barring this, most of the components—Alawites, Druze, Ismailis, Christians and some Kurds—will remain on the sidelines of the revolution," he says. Together those groups make up between 35% and 40% of Syria´s population of about 22.5 million, according to estimates by various United Nations agencies.

The Kurds are an especially large and important minority. They have long been treated as second-class, and the regime has denied many citizenship.

In the wake of the uprising, President Assad offered Kurds citizenship and other benefits. While few have become ardent backers of the regime, the group has remained divided, and Kurds haven´t joined the rebellion in the large numbers opponents of the regime had hoped for.

The SNC´s election of Mr. Sieda as its new leader was an apparent appeal to minorities. The 56-year-old academic was the only contender for the post, which he will hold for three months before another election is held.

Burhan Ghalioun, a secular Sunni academic based in Paris, resigned three weeks ago over criticism that the council wasn´t working transparently and that it had grown out of touch with the protest movement inside Syria. For months, protesters have criticized the group´s leaders—most of whom have lived in exile for many years—for neglecting basic requests from inside Syria for funds, aid, and arms as they jockeyed for political positions. Western nations trying to shape the council into a transitional body have stressed the need to make it more inclusive to a broader range of Syrians.

The SNC was born of a power-sharing agreement between Syria´s most powerful exiled opposition faction, the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, and secular groups, grass-roots activists, and independent opposition leaders from religious or ethnic minorities, like Mr. Sieda.

Some activists were quick to point out that Mr. Sieda shares many of the weaknesses that eventually discredited Mr. Ghalioun´s leadership, which was seen as a superficial front to a council dominated by heavyweight political players including the Brotherhood.

Mr. Sieda—who is Sunni Muslim as well as ethnic Kurdish—has been based in Sweden for much of the two decades he has lived outside Syria. He is not an influential leader within the Kurdish community, observers say, but is seen as the only candidate the divided SNC could agree on. A push behind a Christian candidate failed largely due to objections from Islamists on the council.

Still, Mr. Sieda was quick to signal on his election that he would focus on broadening the council to include more minorities and on an internal restructuring to make it more efficient and accountable. (Copyright © Dow Jones & Company, Inc.) 06/11/12)